Category Archives: Faith

Faith

Who is the Church?


Romans 12:1 – “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which IS your spiritual Worship.”

ekklesia – Greek – from ek, “out of”, and klesis – “a calling”, “called out”, an assembly. Loosely translated, “like-minded people”. In Greek civil society, it meant a body of citizens “gathered” to discuss the affairs of state.

I have a friend on face book, Phyllis Dayton Wall, who posted this question this evening:

“When you are asked what church do you belong to, what do you say? Is it like city, county, state, and country? Denomination, Christian, Jesus Christ, God? Or do we belong to Christ’s church of Believers? Think about this. Your Thoughts?”

I told Phyllis that that is exactly what I am about to post on my blog. She kindly said I can link my blog to this posting in FB. For that I am grateful. Thank you Phyllis.  

This morning, I was tapping a dry well. My goal is to write one blog post a day. I could think of several topics, but couldn’t decide on a single one. (Suggestions welcome).

I went to my room and prayed. My mind was all over the map, and I needed to calm down and get centered on Christ, and listen to the topic HE suggests I write about.

What you will read below is from the outline that came to me as I prayed. And it was not one of the three topics I had on my list.

I have more readers from other walks than I do from the Christian walk. I want to say, right up front, that I appreciate all the lovely letters the non-Christians write to me. They are interesting, and give me a lot to think about. Keep ’em em coming.

This blog is written to the Christians.

I have been away from all things Christian for about 20 years.  I have recently returned. Here is my confession.  There is a God.  God created the Heavens and the Earth.  Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God.  All things were created through Jesus Christ.  I belong to the Living God because I believe and confess with my mouth that Jesus died in my place for my sin.  Scary as this may be to others, this makes me your brother in Christ.  I wrestled with even posting this.  But having been on the outside for 20 years, I have a perspective I would like to share.

Church

From the outside of Christianity, looking in, when I think of Christians, I also think of the church building they go to. I see Roman Catholic, Mormon, Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, non-denominational, etc. When I was a student at Wayland Baptist University, I used to joke that I am a member of “The First United, Holy Roman, Methyl-Bapterian, Church of God in Christ, With Fire and Signs Following” Church.

Looking from the outside at all this, I can see why non-Christians can get confused. When we ask Christians, “What is Church?”, you will get a variety of answers, but most answers boil down to what denomination and building they go to. To someone looking for a cogent answer, this is about as useful as a screen door on a submarine.

Most Christians I have talked to will tell you that they “serve the Church”, when they probably mean they are very involved in the group of people that meet at the same building as they do. They sing in the Choir, they are Deacons, they lead a Youth Group, are Sunday School Teachers, etc. And believe me, that is very important. In fact, that is called for among the congregations of believers. But, again, looking from the outside, I still do not know what the church is, or means. I am beginning to believe Christians, many of them, most of them, do not really know what “Church” is, outside of their own denomination, and building.

The church you attend IS where you go to fellowship and celebrate the joy of your salvation. But, honestly, if the biggest Christian risk you take with your life is to attend Church, then you are not really BEING the Church.

Let me clarify before you decide to gather in my yard and burn me at the stake.

Two wolves were discussing their dinner plans with a Hen and a Pig. The Wolves said they were very hungry for a bacon and egg breakfast. Immediately the Hen said, “OK, We will pitch in.” When the pig heard the hen say that, he objected saying, “Wait a minute! Your only sacrifice is Two Eggs. I will have to give my life for these Wolves breakfast!”

Your Minister, and maybe your Choir Director (Depending on the size of your church) have committed their lives to serve Christ. They have gone whole Hog to answer the “ekklesia ”, the called out ones.

All the other people who serve the church are just giving their eggs to the cause. AND THERE IS NOTING WRONG WITH THAT, except the only thing they are really serving are the people in the local building where they all meet on Sunday.

Look around. Ask yourselves this: Now I am going to play “Devil’s Advocate”. Look at the American society. Look at where the moral standards have gone over the last 40 years. Look where we are politically. Look at the intensity of the acts of violence that are committed here. There was a time in our culture where, even if you didn’t attend Church, the effect the local church had on society was quite strong, and even the unsaved adhered, as best as they could,  to that standard.

Now I can get to the point.

HOLOGRAMS.

(This will make sense by time you finish this paragraph). A hologram image is put onto a film inside a piece of glass. When coherent light hits the hologram, a three-dimensional image can be seen. Let’s say you just got through admiring that hologram, and you went to put it back in its case. Before you can get it to the case, you drop it, and it breaks into several pieces. BUT, being the hologram maker, you know that all the information that was on the whole hologram is also on every piece of the hologram. You can STILL project the whole image from just one piece. 

The whole hologram was made from all the pieces that you gathered up, but each piece IS the hologram.

This is how the Church is supposed to be. Ekklesia is a gathering of the called out people that make a the image of Christ. If, for some reason, that church, and all other churches in America were to cease to exist, does that mean the ekklesia stops existing? NO. It means that the light that shown in the Church is the same coherent light that shows in each Christian.

“But What if MY Church is Dead”

Things that need to be in your church. 1. Coherent light (Jesus is the light of the world), and 2. genuine believers. If your “church” is dead, maybe there are some tougher questions you need to ask. Start with “Where’s the SALT?” No individual, or gathering of individuals can obey God, or do the things that Christ did, on his own power. You have to submit to Christ, and work through the power of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise you will be part of the falling away when things get tough.  and the church you attend is nothing but another social club hiding behind Christ as an excuse to meet.

Each individual believer attending any gathering of believers is, in and of themselves, the light of the world. When you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are remade in His image (REF: II CORINTIANS 5:17).

Lets check the facts. The body of believers all have this in common with each individual believer:

1. They are redeemed – You have been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. He paid for your sin, and you accept that free gift of eternal life. You are His.

2. They are filled with the Spirit of God – Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would come into you, to teach you, and convict you in the way you should go.

3. They know the Word of God – You KNOW that the WORD (Jesus) created all things that exist, and you know that God has given His word in the form of scripture, and you study and DO the word.  Not because it will gain you brownie points with God, but because your love of Christ compels you to obey His word.  

Both the assembly of believers and each individual has the same mandate. To love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul and all our strength. To love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves.

Your Church, if it is a body of believers, will be doing these things. YOU, if you are a believer, will do these things.

Looking at “Church” from the outside, all I see is a joke. I see an impotent group of people who no longer know what they believe, but it sure is nice to see all those folks and hear a nice message from the pastor, every Sunday. Whether the body of believers are assembled or standing alone, the Character of the Believer should be the same. Rather than abdicate our call to the whims of the Government, who has gladly taken the place of the Church (Look at all the social programs THEY are funding, that we gave up on!). It IS the Church’s job to meet the needs of the local community. It is each Christians job to be just like Christ, as the bible says we should be.

Churches and individual believers sin when all they do is get together and talk to themselves, and reject the sinner. I can say this because I have been a minister and a sinner. I understand that we all get in our comfort zones, but tell me where that is in the scriptures. We are called to deny complacency, be filled with the Spirit, and follow Jesus. He said you will be reviled, hated, taken to jail, spit on, and persecuted. That is what being like Jesus is.  If your comfort, convenience, lack of desire, or worry of losing your job, or social standing is more important than being like Christ, then you need to re-examine what the Bible has to say about Jesus’ followers.  

While our government is aiding those who hate us, and kill us, we are to be the light in the world, as a group and as individuals.

What is the Church? Christ’s church is every believer who genuinely has been saved. Whether we are an assembly or not, our behavior is to be the same as if we were the only person on earth who believed in Jesus. Feed the poor, give to those in need, visit the prisoners, go where Jesus went, to the lost, the unwashed, the unclean, visit and support the widows, and the orphans. You are the only church that outsiders see. You don’t need anyone’s permission to obey God. Go, and be that Church.

 

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Faith

The Character of the Redeemed


“I assure you: Unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” – Jesus–John 3:3 HOL

Jesus explained to Nicodemus what it means to be “born again”. Nicodemus had come to the place where Jesus was staying to ask a few questions. Jesus, knowing what was really in Nicodemus’ heart : Jesus answered, “I assure you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.

When we are born from our mothers, we are born in the flesh. We come into this world, already separated from God, because of Adam and Eve. We are born with a soul that is already fallen. Nicodemus had realized, from watching Jesus and His works, that it was obvious that religion was not going to do anything outside of reminding us just how fallen we are. He knew that Christ had the answer. Jesus didn’t waste time explaining it to him. The term “born again” was new. But once Nicodemus figured out that, although he was a high priest, he was as dead to heaven as any prostitute that happened to be walking by.

You are born again when you understand and accept what Jesus said:

“For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

Anyone who believes in Him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the One and Only Son of God.

“This, then, is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.

For everyone who practices wicked things hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed.

But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.” John 3:16 -21 HOL

To accept this unconditional gift of God’s love for you, means you accept that Jesus came here, as God in the flesh. You accept that Jesus died in your place, for your sin, so that, if you accept this free gift, you are now Born in the spirit. Jesus redeemed your soul by selling his in your place. You were bought and paid for by Jesus. You now belong to God. You are free from your sin.

NOW WHAT???

“for you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.” I Cor 6:20

Jesus promised that, if you are in Him, He will be in you. Since Jesus had to return to Heaven, He promised that He will send His spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, to live IN you. Your real body became the dwelling place of God’s Holy Spirit. You are now grafted into the vine, also known as Christ.

The Spirit of God will do works in your life, so that you will be able to grow to be like Christ. The Spirit of God will guide you, as long as you will listen, to be like Christ, who bought your salvation with His open blood.

“we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ” Eph 4:15b

When you follow the Spirit of God, you will develop certain character traits. These traits will be those of Christ. Christ heard the Father, God. Christ Followed the will of God. Christ received God. We have knowledge of this at Jesus’ baptism: “After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”- Matt. 3:16-17

We are led to have the same character of Christ, if we are willing.

Believers in Christ are known for their dedication to Christ.

Believers Hear Christ: “and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” John 10:3-4

When the Spirit of God fills you, you will, for the second time in your life, be able to hear and be sensitive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. You will know the authentic voice of Christ, who is leading you by the Spirit to become more like Him. Before you were saved, you were hearing the many voices of the world. The world was urging you to fear, to want unnecessary things, to seek temporary pleasures. To have all you can get. To disregard your neighbor, and love yourself supremely as your own god.

The Spirit of God will make it clear what the difference is between the voice of the world, and the voice of Christ. And it will be your yearning to follow.

Chances are, if you are saved, but you do not experience this “hearing” then you have returned to the voice of the world, and the cares of the day, and have placed many stumbling blocks between you and God (That is what unrepentant sin is, stumbling blocks).

When a believer hears Christ, he will long to do what he hears. You are no longer a slave to the world. Your freedom has been bought and paid for by the blood of Christ. And it becomes your joy and desire to hear and obey.

Believers Follow Christ: “When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” John 10:4-5

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.” John 10:27-28

and

“For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” Romans 8:14

Believers follow Christ because they know His voice. They follow Christ because they know that through Him, they have the assurance of eternal life. They know they have the assurance of eternal life because they know that this was given to them freely, simply by believing Christ is the Son of God, and confessing with their mouth.

The desire to follow the ways of the world diminish rapidly, as the desire to follow Christ increase. Temptation will always plague a believer. You will fall into sin, occasionally. But Christ will never let anything or anyone take you out of His hand, if you truly have accepted the free gift of salvation.

False believers exist, and \are oftentimes hard to tell apart from Christs real followers. The best way to see who really believes is to watch them when the world insists that following Christ will be detrimental to their job, their comfort, their well being, and/or their personal goals. When it becomes too hard to stand in your religious point of view, and Christ is not your center, it becomes too easy to fall from Christ. The reason people fall from Christ is because they never belonged to Him in the first place. They were just hanging around believers for their own personal advantages.

Jesus promised that when you are His, NOTHING can take you away from Him, even if you trip up. He will pursue you like a lover pursues a woman.

Believers Receive Christ:“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:12 NASB

How do you know you are saved? You have received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. You recognize your sin, and that it separates you from a relationship with God. You recognize that the worlds offerings are nothing but false promises from a system that only exists to chew you up and spit you out when all the good in you is used up.

Believers have the assurance of eternal life. Believers hear His voice, and follow Him, because they have received His free gift of salvation.

DOES ACCEPTING CHRIST MEAN I CAN STAND BEFORE GOD?

One of the hallmarks of disbelief is knowing that I am not really clean inside. People who insist that God does not exist demonstrate a huge amount of hate and anger at the mere mention of God, or Jesus Christ. The world rebels at the exclusivity of the Gospel Message. If the world even wants to acknowledge that there MIGHT be a god, they want God on their terms, believing any and all roads eventually lead to God. The world reacts violently because they do not want to let go of their little kingdoms, and do not want to believe that any God exists apart from themselves being their own god.

The believer, however, has understood what Jesus death and resurrection meant to the lost of this planet. The believer understands that, without the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, for their sin, there would be no God in their future, other than the last judgment.

SO HOW DOES GOD SEE THE SAVED?

When you stand before God, Here is what God will see:

You are BLAMELESS: “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world” Phill 2:13-15 NASB

Because you have accepted Christ, and heard His voice, and followed Him, you are blameless before God.

BUT WHAT IF I DIE 3 SECONDS AFTER I AM SAVED???

You are still blameless in God’s eyes. Read John 3:16-18 –

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

When you accepted Christ, you were born into the Kingdom of God. You are His innocent child. Nothing can take that away from you.

God Sees You as FAITHFUL: “These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.”Rev 17:14 NASB

Because you heard the voice of Christ, and you received Him, and followed him, God sees you as faithful. Again, simply because you have accepted Jesus as Christ, the Lord, you are seen as faithful. It takes faith to accept Christ, but when yu do, you will know the reassurance in your soul that you can stand before God, and be seen as God’s own faithful child. When God sees that you are covered in the blood of His own Son, he will see you as faithful.

God Sees His Image in You. Because you are covered with the blood of Christ, God sees you as complete, blameless, and whole.

“For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” Romans 8:14 NASB

Remember, believer, when you accepted Jesus Christ as the Son of God, who gave His own life for you, you inherited a free gift of eternal life. God will lead you to become like Christ. You will be the image of Christ, and are worthy of being called God’s own child.

When God looks at the redeemed in Christ, He sees His own beloved Children.

God Sees You As Holy: “So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” Col 3:12-17

You are Holy because Christ is Holy. Your love for Christ will lead you to do what is described in the verses above. When you walk after the things of God, led by the Spirit of God, because you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, you will not want to commit unholy acts. But even when you do, you know you can goto God and repent, and He will be faithful to forgive you. When God looks at you, He sees his own Holiness, simply because you have accepted Jesus Christ’s sacrifice.

The world will bring you problems. But don’t let that stress you. God will be there with you, to guide you through it, because you HEAR, RECEIVE, and FOLLOW.

The choice is simple, yours, and eternal.

I love you in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

 

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Faith

The Scarlet Thread


 

CHAPTER 1 

     “What is in the box?” asked the Pilgrim.

     “Something so dangerous that thousands of wars have been fought over it.” hissed the Bedouin, his foul breath reaching over the stench of the camels.

     “Let me see!” the Pilgrim demanded, as he reached greedily for the very old box.

“Not so fast!” barked the Bedouin, snatching the box back and hiding it under his cloak.

     The only livestock this Bedouin had were his camels and some very mean looking dogs. There were no sheep that these dogs had to herd. It was obvious that they were here as part of the Bedouin’s protection. He was clearly no shepherd. He was just another oily, dishonest merchant, looking for his fortune.

The box was aged beyond time. The brass and gold fittings looked new, though, in spite of being coated with the dust of time and burial. The richness of the olive wood container shined through the dust. Whoever made it had put real effort and care in constructing it. The corners were seamless, and the lid fit so well, it looked as if the box was a solid piece of wood. The only give away that it was a container was the hinges. Outside of the expensive metals that held this box together, it looked rather plain.

The Bedouin group had traveled from the wadi musa, at Petra, and he had traveled from Ethiopia. They had agreed to meet in the middle of the God forsaken Sahara. The only light was a yellow, June, Mid-Summer moon, and a dying campfire. This was the only oasis for three hundred miles. It was the only place the traveling salesman of the desert felt safe to meet this kafir, this “Pilgrim”. Mahmoud eyed the Pilgrim with contempt, but also saw the potential for a big pay day.

“This is the only remaining copy in existence. You had better have the gold I want, or you will die out here.” The Bedouin growled at the Pilgrim.

He gulped a little too loudly, this Pilgrim, and scanned the horizon. In spite of the chill of the desert night, a film of sweat covered his ebony forehead. He knew that Mahmoud’s forces were hiding just over the two dunes facing them. This oasis was hidden in a valley. He could only imagine how many bodies were already buried under the ageless sand.

Mahmoud laughed a low rumble in his chest. Relaxing, he took the box out from under his cloak and waved it under the Pilgrim’s nose.

“You want this pretty badly, do you, kafir?” Mahmoud asked, now with the assurance of a man who knows a good mark when he sees one.

“My price just doubled.”

     “W-what??”, the Pilgrim shouted. He heard the sound of many rifles cambering their rounds. He knew he had better get a grip, or die trying.

“I only have the million in gold you asked for.”, pleaded the Pilgrim.

“That’s too bad.”, Mahmoud said in a condescending voice. I would loved to see the look on your face when you opened the box.

“You were going to kill me, anyway, weren’t you?” asked the Pilgrim, finally seeing that this was the plan all along.

“You have attained wisdom far too late, my friend. Make your peace.” Mahmoud aimed his .45 cal, Colt 1911, replica at the Pilgrim’s head, and pulled the hammer back with a click that made the Pilgrim jump.

“You are pathetic, Pilgrim.” Mahmoud slowly began to squeeze the trigger. He was taking his time, amazed that this weakling could stand bravely and stare down the barrel of his death.

    The Pilgrim raised his hands and shouted, “WIND BLOW!”

This made Mahmoud hesitate. Before he could finish squeezing off a round, the entire desert exploded in a hurricane of sand. The mighty wind howled. Men screamed. Dogs howled. As the skin was being sandpapered off Mahmoud’s face, he looked at the Pilgrim and saw another being standing right next to him. He looked like a God. And the wind was calm where they stood.

 

CHAPTER 2

The morning sun was just breaking the horizon by the time the wind died down, and the dust had settled. The Pilgrim was laying unconscious by the oasis. Date palms and coconut trees cast a very long shadow, as an underground stream bubbled into the water nearby.

The Pilgrim woke up as if from a profoundly deep dream. He didn’t feel like he had just traveled hundreds of miles on a camel to the middle of nowhere. He knew he had been sent here. He was visited in another dream, a lifetime ago, by one who said his name was “I AM”. In that dream, “Eh’ya”said to shout “WIND BLOW!” when the time is right. He recalled asking the visitor, “When will I know that the time is right?”

“When the tunnel you are staring down leads to your death”, He said. The Pilgrim woke up crying, laughing, afraid to open his eyes, wanting to dance on his bed. That dream seemed like it happened a thousand years ago. But here he was. Just like in the dream. And it had all happened as “Eh’ya”said it would.

The Pilgrim stood up and laughed as loud as he could. He saw it happen before his own eyes. Facing death, his mysterious visitor had given him the words of life. And here he was; At an oasis, with plenty of fresh water, and food, and shade. The Bedouin tents were still standing, so shelter will not be a problem.

He stood in total amazement as the camels slowly poked their heads out of one of the tents, as if they were making sure the terror was over. Assured it was safe, the camels followed each other to the fresh grasses and water by the oasis.

The Pilgrim looked around. Everything was still in place, as if nothing had happened. He looked all over the valley and the two facing dunes. He found no evidence that the men of the Bedouin caravan had ever existed.

He was alone.

 

CHAPTER 3

As the rays of the sun slowly crossed the fresh water of the oasis, he caught the glimmer of shining bindings reflecting off the box. The ancient box was sitting on an outcropping of rock that jutted out over the oasis. It looked as if it had been placed there on purpose.

He walked to the oasis and sat by the water and just looked at the box. He was transfixed by how alive this ancient container looked. He could swear it gave off a subtle, but beautiful music. He was in awe. After years of searching, there it was. He felt excitement and fear just by looking at it. He knew the hard work of finding it was over, and the harder work of uncovering its secrets was only beginning.

He knew he was safe. He had a dream about this place. This very oasis. In that dream he met a strange, but fearfully powerful being called “Eh’ya”.

“Eh’ya” said he will have his sentries guard this place as long as he, the Pilgrim, chose to remain at the oasis. He saw no evidence there were any sentries, but he also remembered the amazing spectacle he saw when he shouted the words that , “Eh’ya” had given him, “WINDS BLOW!”.

The box was not going anywhere, soon. He was well rested, but hungry. The first thing he did was gather dead wood that was scattered all around the oasis. It looked as if a forest had been here not too long ago, but had run out of water to sustain itself.

Pushing the trees over was no difficult task. He had found tools in the Camel Riggers tent, and used them to break the wood up into usable chunks. He poured a little oil on the wood and started a fire. It was broad daylight, but it is never too soon to start a fire when you are alone in the desert.

After a pleasant breakfast, and after making sure all the camels were eating and drinking, he decided it was time. The box was as patient as eternity, but he was running out of patience with himself. He walked out to the ledge that overlooked the oasis, sat down next to the box, picked it up, and looked at it as if it might grow three heads and start singing to him. He was nervous.

The latch was made of the finest brass he had ever seen. The workmanship was something beyond any he had ever seen. Intricate scroll work covered the golden trim that adorned the box, front and back. And the box hummed. It felt alive.

He took a deep breath, not knowing what to expect, and set out trying to figure out how to unlock the latch. Hundreds of men had tried over hundreds of years to unlock this lock, but, for him, it opened as if there were no lock. It clicked open, smoothly, as if it had just been oiled.

     He opened the lid slowly. He wasn’t sure what to expect, except he knew that this was the last one on earth. Legend has it that this book contained a powerful history, that the one who possess this book will have the keys of life. Nations and kingdoms had fought and died trying to obtain it for themselves. Every man that had held it, and tried to open it had died. At least that is how the story went.

Over a thousand years ago, wars were fought and men died over the secrets contained in this book. Two thirds of the humans on Earth had been destroyed. As far as he knew, His land was the only one still inhabited. He had heard rumors of humans being alive on the forbidden side of the Earth, but those were only rumors. Besides, as the stories go, only the crazies live on that half of the Earth. Most of them were supposed to be cannibals. That thought made him involuntarily shiver.

Nations and kingdoms began to believe that this book should be banned, since it caused so much trouble. Eventually, it became forbidden to have a copy. All copies had been rounded up burned, along with their owners. All except this one. And he held it in his hands.

     He figured it would be an emerald book of mysteries, or, maybe a gilded book with a pearl cover. But it was just a plain, simple looking book, covered with lambs skin. It looked incredibly old. He wasn’t sure if opening it would hurt it, or not, but he had come all this way, and he was not about to stop now.

The book had writing in it. It was in a language he had never seen before. The shapes of the letters mystified him. Here he was, a scholar of the first order, and he couldn’t tell what the book said. As he was about to put the book back into the box in frustration, a light appeared standing on the water of the oasis.

He fainted.

 

CHAPTER 4

When he came too, he saw a man in the clothes of another Bedouin. But this man’s robes were clean, white and bright. He could smell the fragrant and aromatic scent of exotic wood and flowers. His keffiyeh, head scarf, was pure white with streaks of scarlet running through it. He wore what looked like a spun and woven gold sash around his waste. The sword hanging from his sash looked like lightning dusted with gold flakes.

The visitor was smiling, and spoke to him.

“Don’t be afraid.”

But the Pilgrim couldn’t find his legs, and fell on his face in fear. He had never seen anyone that looked like this man, so ordinary, but so regal. He knew he was in the presence of tremendous power.

Shaking, he stayed bowed, but looked up. When he saw the man’s eyes, he felt completely at peace. He felt as if he was seeing the best friend he ever had known, but also felt such a power radiating off this man, that he knew that with a word, he could do more than make the wind blow.

“Get up.” said the visitor. It wasn’t an order, but it held all the authority of a command. And the Pilgrim stood.

The Visitor said, “We have a lot to talk about”.

 

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The Grace of God – Part II


Editorial View Point:

Someone asked me why my posts are SO long.  There is a specific group I am targeting.  They like the information I provide.  If you are not one of them, I am grateful that you work your way through my posts.  I am working at developing several styles to convey Biblical truths.   I suppose I could give you those “FB” style one liners, or even a daily devotional style of writing.  And I am working on that.  But when the subject is as important as the one below, I would rather include something that will bore you, the educated Christian, than leave out information that someone seriously desiring to hear God might miss.  For that, I make no apologies.  I simply write about what I, myself, had to go through to understand the difference between a religion and a relationship to God.

INTRODUCTION:

I had a very interesting, and fulfilling,  conversation with a brother in the lord, last night (Thank-You, Casey).

The subject was over what I had written in my post,  “The Grace of God”.  That post dealt with how Satan tries to trip you up, and how God carries you through this experience.  My brother, Casey, correctly pointed out the dangers of the belief that God’s grace is like a giant bandage to all sins you will commit.  That you may mistakenly fall under the same error that the Romans did, that it is OK if you sin because God has already covered that sin.

The Grace of God – Part II will cover this case.  This post is also in two parts.  In Part A, I will cover what God does with your sin if you are an unbeliever, and how he offers us hope through Christ.  This part is the cornerstone of what it means to belong to God through Jesus Christ.

The second part of this post deals with what to do about sin AFTER you are saved, and what the believer should do about specific sins.  Thank you for reading it all the way through, and please, leave a comment.  I am very interested in your opinions.

Part A

SIN and sins – Or what was the whole Jesus thing for, in the first place?

In my post, “The Grace of God”, I described what happened in the first place to separate Humans from the face to face presence of God.  We were given free will, because God didn’t make a bunch of robots.  The Angels have free will, which is why we had the wars of the angels in the first place.  God gave Humans free will because he literally wants only people who want to hang out with him to be with him.  The down side of our having this free will is, we bought the lie that Satan gave us, and ended up just as condemned as Satan.  Satan’s eternal abode will be Hell.  This is the second death.  SIN brought real death, real decay, and real evil into this Earth.  The eternal covenant God has with ALL of his creation is that God will not tolerate Sin in His presence.  It isn’t like he is allergic to it.  It is more like, God is HOLY and will only have HOLINESS around His home, which is in the highest heaven.  SIN = death.  GOD is life.  You can look at world history to see how all that turned out.

We are born separated from God.  While you are an unaccountable child, you live in a kind of grace.  When you reach the age of accountability,then all bets are off.

So, now is the right time to ask “WHO really needs salvation, anyway?”

Short Answer:  Humans.

All the World Guilty

…as it is written,

“There is none righteous, not even one;
There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”
Romans 3:10 – 12 NASB
and
“…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”  Romans 3:23 NASB
You can be “good”, you can give to every charity you can imagine, you can live in a way that the worst thing you ever did was steal one extra cookie when you were 4.  But, SIN, still lives in you.  You know this is true when you ask yourself, how much do I hate, how angry do I get over things, how many times have I coveted, how many times have I told a lie, how many times have I heard about someone getting killed, and thought to myself , “That bastard deserved it!”.  These are evidences of SIN.    The Bible makes it crystal clear that all Humans are born in sin, and live a life separated from God.  You can feel it in your heart.  Like something is missing, or you get a serious longing in your heart for a love that you cannot define.  You spend your entire life trying to fill that gap in your heart, and never reach it.  You turn to drugs, alcohol, sex, or whatever, but nothing can fill that hole that exists, that yearning for peace that you crave.  You can feel it.
We are all born separated from God.

So, now is the right time to ask “WHY do we really need salvation?”

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23 NASB
and
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. ” John 3:16 NASB
Because original SIN separated Humans from God for all eternity.  God loves you, but His own law is “For the wages of SIN is death”.  The only way Humans can receive forgiveness was that a PERFECT Human had to voluntarily and willingly die in your place for your sin.  After the fall of all mankind in the garden of Eden, there were no perfect Humans.  God is all-powerful and sovereign.  In His own might, HE came to earth in the form of a man.  His name was Yeshua (Jesus).  Jesus voluntarily filled the will of God the Father, and died in your place for all the SIN in the world.  He did this out of His enormous love for you.  Jesus rose himself from death in order to prove He had the Authority to call himself the “Son of God”.   You need salvation because you are born in sin.  You receive eternal life with God if you accept this FREE GIFT of Jesus dying in your place.  You have the hope of eternal life after your body dies.  Jesus proved this by His resurrection from the dead.
JESUS IS HOW GOD PROVIDED SALVATION
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”  Romans 5:8 NASB

How Do We Receive this Salvation??

“…if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”  Romans 10:9-10 NASB

and

 “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:13

When you believe in your heart that Jesus died in your place for your sin, and confess with your mouth (Say it out loud),  you are saved from eternal death.  You have been rejoined to fellowship with the Living God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  The Holy Spirit will come to you, and will guide you.  You have peace with God, now.   You are no longer His enemy, as Satan still is, but you are now, eternally, God’s own beloved child.

Our Victory in Christ

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” Romans 5:1 NASB

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39

You have admitted that your SIN separates you from God.  You understand that as a sinner, you deserved eternal separation from God (This is the second death).  You believe that Jesus Christ died in your place, on the cross, to free you from the curse of SIN and death (The second death).  You have repented by turning from your old life of sin to a new life in Christ.  And you have received, through FAITH in Jesus Christ, His free gift of Salvation.

OK, But what about all the sin I keep committing???

I am glad you asked.  I will tell you.  Jesus promised you that He will send the Holy Spirit to you.

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. “ John 14:16 NASB (Words of Jesus are in red).

and

“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”  John 14:21 NASB

and

“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.  He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.”   “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”  John 14:23-26 NASB

Once you are sealed in forgiveness by the Blood of Jesus Christ, you will not be able to be removed from His hand.  But you will still be able to be tempted by your old habits, and by Satan.  As long as you are on this Earth, that is how it is.  We are called to be IN the Earth, not OF the Earth.  We are still here after we were saved so that we can tell others how it is we have eternal life, how it is we have such joy in our hearts, how it is that we suddenly are at peace.

Now that you are saved, God’s grace covers all your sin, past, present and future.  THAT IS TRUE!  There is a heresy being taught today, that was being taught in the Apostle Paul’s day.  The heresy teaches that you can sin, and it will be covered by God’s grace, so don’t worry about it.  This doctrine is a religious point of view that God never allowed for.

The truth of the matter is that God’s grace covered all your sin from the foundation of the world.  But that is not a license to sin, in order that God’s grace can be demonstrated:

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? ” Romans 6:1 NASB

and

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. ” Galatians 2:20 NASB

and

“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”  John 14:20

and

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. “ John 15:4-5 NASB

The evidence of your salvation will be revealed in your life.  If you abide in Christ, you will grow to be like Christ.  Yes, because you are human, you will slip and fall, occasionally.  That is why Jesus promised you the Holy Spirit, so that when you trip up, the Spirit of God will LOVINGLY convict you, and you will be led to repent, and you will have learned from that lesson, and will grow to be like Christ.

Any unconfessed sin is a barrier YOU place between YOU and God.  Has God covered it?  In his sovereignty and foreknowledge of you, he knew you would sin.  In His grace, he allows that sin.  In His mercy, He forgives that sin.  But it is not a license to continue in sin.  Jesus pointed out that if you continue to live in sin, you are not His.  If you ABIDE (A word that means to move in with, or literally “Pitch your Tent”, establish your dwelling with), then you have willingly given up YOUR own way to pursue the way of Christ.  We are to become like Christ.  This takes a daily effort.  This takes you intentionally laying aside YOUR will in the pursuit of the will of God for you.

God’s grace is not a license to sin.  It is the covering God gives you so that when the Spirit of God convicts you, you will be able to go to God and confess, and repent, and be restored.  If you are intending to be like Christ, and His Spirit has filled you, then you will not WANT to sin.

Let’s put it this way:  If you are still living a life of sin, chances are you have either never been saved, or you have intentionally chosen NOT to walk in a life to be like Christ.

Grace is not a license to sin, it is your opportunity to repent when you do.

Go and sin no more.

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I Renamed My Lawnmower


I am not playing the sympathy card, here, but I have really bad lung problems.

The problem is SO bad that if the local humidity gets above 50%, I start having problems breathing.  When it gets above 60%, I am virtually a prisoner in my own home.  My lungs are bad because of all the times I have had pneumonia, and have been exposed to really corrosive chemicals.

To make matters worse, I am allergic to almost every thing that exists in Missouri.   I live in Missouri. If I were sitting in my favorite cafe, in the mountains of Montana, sipping a good hot tea, and my wonderful wife, Sandy, were to sit down next to me, holding a package just shipped up from Missouri, I would probably have a collapsed lung, right there. I hope God smiles on me soon and allows me to move to the Mountains.  I can breathe there, and enjoy the great outdoors with no hindrances.

I think I am allergic as a judgement.  See, I used to make fun of my First Wife (Let’s call her Cinnamon).  She has allergies that can, sometimes, be pretty bad.  I used to tease her incessantly.  Not only was that an unkind act, in and of itself, and I am genuinely sorry for that, but it was cruel.  This is when I first realized that “You reap what you sew.”

So, here I am, in Missouri, allergic to every organic object that exists, and it is hot and very humid here.  Grass grows in my yard.  It wouldn’t be a problem if I could hire Skippy McDork to come out and mow my lawn, but I cannot.  SO, I mow the yard.

Today, it is hot and humid.  I can barely breathe.  So I get really exhausted pretty fast.   When it is this bad, I fade between seeing and graying out.  I wanted to get this over with.

But, as I mowed, I was able to overcome these obstacles.  And I remembered:

“The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.”  Psalm 118:14

Remembering that verse lifted my heart, and I swear I felt a cool breeze go right through me.  It felt good, and I kept mowing.

As I got fatigued, I noticed that I had left a few patches.  I was tired, and didn’t feel like going back for the patches I missed.

Then I remembered:

“What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?”  Luke 15:4

and THAT made me think of Christ dragging his beam to the hill of Golgotha.  He was tired beyond reason.  He had been beaten nearly to death.  Because HE was a workman worthy of His hire, he completed all the things God set before him to do.

And I also remembered that God intends us to harvest until he returns, and the even the corners will be harvested.

So, I did the whole Job.  I know mowing isn’t one of the “High Spiritual Callings” but if I am to believe the word of God, I need to develop the habit of practicing it.  And the word says:   “And whatsoever ye do, do [it] heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;” Colossians 3:23   

Jesus didn’t die for only a few of our sins.  He died for all of them.  He didn’t cut corners.  He drank deep of the cup God had served  Him.

“And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud [one] sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.  And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.  And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.””  Revelation 14:14-16

The fields are ripe for the harvest.  I was reminded that, because of the Grace of God, I am still here to reap.  I remembered all this while I mowed and wanted to quit.  When we are faithful in these little things, God will trust you with bigger ones.  I have only recently returned to God, through Jesus Christ, but I have no intention of getting it wrong this time.

I have renamed my Mower “Grace” so every time I mow, and struggle to breathe, and get fatigued, and want to lay down and die, I will remember why I am still here.

“To live is Christ, to die is gain.” – The Apostle Paul

 

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The Grace of God


Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.  But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being  fell  upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.  All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. Is. 53:4-6 NASB                     http://www.blueletterbible.org

I first learned of the time gap between the 1st and 2nd verses of Genesis 1 from a Messianic Jew, a former Rabi from Israel.  He was from the “School of the Prophets” group.  They delved deep into the mysteries of the Scriptures.  They knew of the “Bible Code” long before it was a popular topic.  They knew things about the Bible that even other Rabin did not know.  And that takes me back to the gap between the 1st and 2nd verse in Genesis 1.  Proving that fact is not the purpose of this writing, but you can get a decent understanding of that gap here:   http://custance.org/Library/Volume6/Part_III/Introduction.html.

The whole point of my bringing this up is to tell you that a many events occurred between those two verses.  One of those things was the Wars of the Angels in Heaven.  Two thirds of the Angels of God rebelled against God.  Very long story short, they lost the war.  Their leader, Lucifer, was cast out of Heaven. Lucifer is known by many names, but Satan is the name we know him by.  As a noun, Satan means “Adversary, enemy, etc”, as a verb, it is “Accuser”.

Satan knows what his future will bring.  He knows his day s are numbered.  Because he has been disconnected from God his mind is given completely over to sin and evil. He has become incapable of any holy thought, act of righteousness, or discernment.  Satan believes he stands a chance of winning the final battle.

In between the Angelic Wars and now, Satan managed to talk Human Souls into joining him in eternal damnation.  Satan is the one who kills, steals and destroys.  Satan will tempt you.  That is half of what this post is about.  The other half is dedicated to the Grace of God.

Satan the Tempter:

Satan will tempt you using the word of God.

Jesus had been in the wilderness for 40 days.  He was hungry, thirsty, and exhausted.  “Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.” Luke 4:2

And he (Satan) brought him (Jesus) to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:  For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:  And in [their] hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.  

Satan, as the destroyer knew that, if he could get Jesus to succumb to temptation, then the show was over for all of us.  He, knowing what his fate is, wants company in his misery.  Jesus was weakened by his trials in the desert.  If he could get Jesus to fail, there would be no hope for the redemption of mankind to God.  There is a reason it is called Temptation.  If it were easy to say ‘No’, it wouldn’t really be tempting, would it?

Jesus, as tired and hungry as he was, did the one thing he could do and not blow it.  He answered Satan with the Word of God.  He didn’t reason, justify, waffle, bargain, or debate.  He fell back to a position that shows the authority of the scriptures when they are used properly.

And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Luke 4:12

Satan Will Tempt You Over What God Actually Said

Here is where we learn to know AND understand the words of God.  Horrible things have been done on this planet simply because people do not know and understand what God said and meant.  Jesus never subjugated women, yet many faiths treat women like second class citizens.  Many people think the Bible actually said, “God helps those that help themselves.”  Misunderstanding the intent of the Word, or blatantly not knowing it will lead you into a world of deep doo-doo.

Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?  And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:  But of the fruit of the tree which [is] in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.  Gen 3:1-3 KJV

Here, Satan used doubt as a tool to get Eve to wonder if what she thought she heard was actually what she heard.  In response, Eve not only used God’s word to argue with Satan, but added to what God said.  Probably to underscore her point.    Satan’s goal is, and always has been to separate us from God.  Have you ever told someone something that someone else said to you, and the person you said it to said, “REALLY?, He said that?”  Because you might be wrong, you begin to entertain the idea that you might be wrong.  Maybe you misunderstood what was said, or what that someone meant to convey by saying it.  When doubt clouds your judgement between right and wrong, you have opened your armor against temptation.  Once you are vulnerable, it is easier to tempt you.  The lesson here is to what God said and what He MEANT when He said it, and what you should do in the light of it being said.

KNOW THE WORD INSIDE AND OUT!

SATAN THE ACCUSER

Along with being the adversary, Satan loves to accuse us.  If he can make a case against you, then he thinks he wins.  The case doesn’t even have to be true, as Satan is not acquainted with the truth.  It just has to be convincing.

SATAN WILL ACCUSE YOU TO GOD.

In the book of Job, we see that Satan was in the throne room of God.  Satan waited in line so he can accuse someone to God.  In this case, God, knowing what Satan was up to, offered Job as an example of one of his children.  Immediately, Satan accused Job to God and said that if God hadn’t shown Job such favor, Job would just abandon his faith, and curse God to God’s face.

Satan will go to the Living God and accuse you every time you trip up.  He gets his kicks doing this.  He believes that he is rubbing God’s children’s failures in God’s face.

SATAN WILL ACCUSE GOD TO YOU

Sometime we mess up.  We sin.  And when we do, our conscience starts eating at us.  We pray and confess our sin, and repent of it.  But Satan will come along in an effort to rob you of your joy,  and tell you, “God is mad at you for what you did.  What a loser you are to God.  You blew it with the Big Guy this time.”  Satan will rob you of your joy if you give him one second to make his case to you.   There is a way to deal with this, and I will show you in a minute.

SATAN WILL ACCUSE YOU TO YOURSELF

When we mess up, and we know we have messed up, Satan loves to accuse you to yourself so that you will forget to go to God for confession and repentance and forgiveness.  He wants to distract you, so you will be too confused and full of self loathing to do the right thing.  He may say things like,  “You know what it says in the Book, “The wages of sin is death.”, you might as well give up.  You will never be good enough for God.  You can’t go ten minutes with out tripping up.  Man, you call yourself a Christian.”  If he can get your eyes off the redemptive work of Jesus, he can bring you down to a pit of misery and personal hell.  If you stay there, you may eventually lose your faith altogether.  This is the goal of Satan as the accuser.  To separate you from God.

WHAT GOD HAS TO SAY ABOUT YOU

THE ASSURANCE OF GOD’S GRACE

You have the assurance of God’s Grace when you repent.  You have this assurance because you have accepted that Jesus died on the cross in your place for all your sin, past present and future.  You are saved because of His death and resurrection.  When Jesus died on the cross, the eternal covenant was sealed.  Satan was defeated, and lost the right to call Earth his home, and human souls his own.  Jesus took the keys of hell away from Satan for all eternity.

     For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;  whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;  for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.  Romans 3 :23-26 NASB

When you go to God, you have the assurance that God will blot out your transgressions for the sake of the blood of Christ that covers you, and makes you God’s own beloved child.

“I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.”  Isaiah 43:25

Because of this great gift of God’s grace, through Jesus Christ you can say:

“I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”  Isaiah 61:10  NASB

GOD CHOOSES TO FORGET YOUR TRANSGRESSION

Because of your faith in Jesus Christ, and because you turned to God, confessed your sin, repented of it in your heart, and laid it at His feet, you can say:  “As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.” Psalm 103:12 NASB

Hanging on to your unconfessed sin will only weaken your faith, and open a door for the tempter to come in and twist your heart even more.  You have a loving God who is ever ready, and joyfully willing to forgive you.  You are His own precious one of you have accepted the free gift offered through Jesus Christ.  There is no other place to go to know real redemption and forgiveness of sin.  Unconfessed sin is a stumbling block to your growth in the Lord.

Have no fear.  Come to His throne with thanks giving and know he will forgive you.  You will leave the Throne Room knowing you are forgiven.  Be sure and leave that burden at his feet.  He will remove it from before Himself, and not count it as transgression against him.  You are free of this.

“Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in unchanging love.  He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins Into the depths of the sea.”  Micah 7: 18-19 NASB

His desire is that you remain His child.  Because of the blood of Christ, you are saved.  When he sees you, he sees the mark of Jesus on you, and he declares his everlasting love for you.

“Lo, for my own welfare I had great bitterness; It is You who has kept my soul from the pit of nothingness, For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.”  “For Sheol cannot thank You, Death cannot praise You; Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.”  Isaiah 38:17-18 NASB

HERE’S WHY

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.  “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.  “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”  John 3:16-18 NASB

Satan thought he could take all of Humanity with him when he tempted Adam and Eve.  Like I said, he was deluded because he was incapable of reasoning out that he was evil and defeated.  The contract was that a perfect human had to be sacrificed, voluntarily, for the sake of all mankind.  There were no perfect humans on earth.  None.  But God foresaw all this from the beginning, and became human.  He came here in the form of Jesus.  The rightful heir to the throne, and a rightful rabbi of the house of Levi.  Jesus was on record of being a priest-king. And he lived without sin among us.  He came here that we will have life.  He came here for the express purpose of being that sacrifice that would satisfy all of Heavenly law.  He became the fulfillment of the law, when he died on the cross, and rose himself up again, by his own authority.  He did this to prove He has the right to be called the Son of God.

“God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  II Corinthians 5:21 NASB

Satan has no hold over you.  He has no power over you, unless you give it to him.  You are the precious child of God.  Nothing can remove you from God once you are His child.  You become His child when you believe with all your heart that Jesus IS the Son of God, died for your sins, and rose again on the 3rd day.

Satan will try to tempt you, deceive you and accuse you in order that you may stumble.  Satan will tempt you with things you like.  Satan will tempt you with things that God means to give you anyway.  When Satan tried to tempt Jesus to bow before him, so that all the kingdoms of the earth could be His, Satan was trying to tempt Jesus with what God was going to give Him any way.

By the Authority given to Jesus, you are saved if you believe.  You are safe from temptation if you know the word for what it actually says and actually means.  By the authority given to you by Jesus Christ, you are Christs representative while you still live.  Go boldly before the throne and be free of the things that encumber you.  What Satan tries to take your joy away, do what the angels did, and say, “The Lord Rebuke You”.

Satan has no power over you at all, unless you give him YOUR power.

Go, and sin no more.

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FamilyLife Today® Radio : The Downward Spiral


This is good stuff.
The Downward Spiral

Tue, 18 Jun, 2013Every person has a story to tell. For some, like Joy McClain, living with an alcoholic husband had become a nightmare. Joy describes how, lifted up by the prayers and encouragement of the church body, she found herself being coaxed out of despair, even as her marriage continued to spiral downward.

Listen to today’s program:   http://web.familylifetoday.com/fl2013-06-18.mp3
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Forgiveness, the Test of Authenticity


“But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil [souls][humans]. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned.  Luke 6: 35 – 37 NASB

Also, do not take seriously all words which are spoken, so that you will not hear your servant cursing you. For you also have realized that you likewise have many times cursed others.. Eccl 7:21 – 22 NASB

SCRIPTURES COPIED FROM:  http://www.blueletterbible.org/

THIS ONE IS PERSONAL.  I HAVE CHOSEN TO EXPOSE MYSELF IN THIS REGARD SIMPLY BECAUSE MOST OF THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW ME ALREADY KNOW MUCH THESE EVENTS.  I AM NOT LOOKING FOR YOUR PITY.  I WANT TO USE THIS VERY PERSONAL EVENT TO SHOW YOU HOW I FIRST LEARNED FORGIVENESS.

IT IS TO THEM, THE WELL INTENTIONED DRAGONS, THAT I DEDICATE THIS INSTALLMENT ON FORGIVENESS.  I REALLY LOVE YOU, HONESTLY, COMPLETELY. AND IN THE NAME OF JESUS, I LOVE YOU.

I am going to share with you a special case under the heading of Forgiveness.  It is a case that I struggle with.  To forgive and to be forgiven.  This is about accepting God‘s forgiveness, yet dealing with the unforgiving souls who insist that you are still damaged goods, in spite of what God has done.  In a later installment (Which I have not decided if I will post) I will deal with an extreme case of hatred, and where forgiveness comes into the picture.

20 years ago, God told me that my first marriage was going to end.  I knew a week before it happened that it was coming.  God let me know in no uncertain terms that, if I will cling to Him during this storm, He would sustain me, restore me, and make me stronger in the Lord than I could imagine.  The clouds were in the sky, but the storm had not hit, yet.

Although I could see this storm coming, I had not prepared my heart for the intensity of the storm.  And it was intense.  The year leading up to this storm, I had really begun to stray from God, through various acts of self righteousness.  I had become a Pharisee of the first order.  God had given me the privilege of seeing Moslems come to Christ in my ministry.  God had given me the privilege of seeing witches, satanists, and gang members come to the Lord.  He used me as His pen to draw the picture of salvation.  But in my pride and arrogance, I felt I could take it from there, and pretty much excluded God from His work in me.  I had stopped bible reading and prayer.   I began to allow the little foxes of sin and pride into my garden.  Eventually, I was screwing up my life, and didn’t understand it was my fault.

Then the storm hit.

My heart was not prepared for it, even though God had let me know in very clear terms it was coming.  The right thing for me to do would have been to repent of my sin, humble myself before the Lord, seek His forgiveness, and cling to Him for all I was worth.  But because I didn’t heed God’s warning, I was not able to withstand the unbearable intensity of losing my wife.

Even then I had the opportunity to repent and turn to God.  I failed that test, too.  I was letting my confusion, frustration and anger do my thinking.  I was allowed to have my way, and I was left to my own devices.  And I fell into even more sin than I could imagine was possible.

I left behind a trail of destruction.

Later on, I met my current wife.  I was still damaged goods.  The day I met her, the very instant I saw her, I had a vision of things to come.  I saw us married, and I saw my child.  I actually saw Hannah, years before she was born.  (There is more to that, and remind me to tell it to you).

What I saw scared me so badly, I ran away from her and hid for 6 weeks.  Anyone who knows me knows I don’t back down from anything.  But THIS vision truly horrified me.  See, I knew deep in my soul that I had not done business with God.  I had a lot of repentance to do.  I had a lot of forgiveness to seek and give.  I was seriously damaged goods.

Eventually, I screwed up my courage and called her, and we dated and eventually got married.  A year later, Hannah was born.

But I still lived in rebellion to God.  By this time, I genuinely began to crave that sweet relationship with God, but I wanted that relationship on my terms.  I didn’t want to go through the very hard time of repentance.  And I had some repenting to do.

Eventually, I let sin get the best of me again.  It was one of the big ones, and it caused a great deal of hurt in my marriage.

The details are none of your business.  But I sinned.  And I never sin in half measures.

The damage was bad.  Family on both side of the fence let me know in no uncertain terms what a schmuck I was.  Some even told me I would be better off dead.  Some cursed me to my face, and spared no expense telling everyone and everything that would listen what an incredible sin I had committed.  It affected my ability to make friends, it affected my ability to get a job (I live in a small town).  I was given the scarlet letter.  In the view of these well meaning dragons, I was irredeemable, and there will be no forgiveness to be had.  People told me to my face that they want me to leave, go away, never return, to do my wife a favor and disappear.  I genuinely got to see the dark side of the children of God.

Eventually, people I had never known would confront me about this sin. I learned that, not only do religious people love to hate, but they love to gossip, too.

I had begun to crave the presence of God in my life, and I wanted so bad to have a prayer partner.  While I was at work, one day, the guy that delivers our welding gases drove up.  He was very nice, very friendly.  Somehow, we began to talk about God.  I told him that I had fallen out of fellowship with God, and want to know the presence of God in my life.  He prayed with me and for me.  He told me I can come by his work-place anytime I wanted to pray with him.  He gave me his phone number.  I was so overjoyed, I actually started crying right there, in front of my co-workers.  I actually had someone to talk to, who wanted to work with me on the return to God.

A week later, I needed to go to that guys’ work place to buy an additional bottle of acetylene gas.  While my order was being filled, I went to that guy.  Instead of shaking my hand, I was met with a great deal of hostility.  It turned out that he was also a prayer partner with one of the well intentioned dragons who told me my family would be better off if I were dead.  I saw genuine hate in this man’s eyes.  He let me know what that well intentioned dragon had told him.  I was devastated that in an instant, a person I just met, who would pray with me, would turn on me with such vengeance.

My wife had a heart attack.

While she was in surgery, and I was waiting in the waiting room, I was told that one of my wife’s friends wanted to talk to me.  I got her phone number, and after I got home, late that night, I called her. It started out alright.  I wanted things to go well, as I have always admired this person.  I mean I genuinely loved this person.  The conversation suddenly turned ugly.  She let me know that there is no way that healing in my relationship with my wife would happen.  That this friend had been trying with all her might to get my wife to leave me and move in with her.  I was, once again, informed that the local world would be better off if I just went away.

I think it was this turn of events, my wife having a heart attack, her friends and relatives continually letting me know that it would be best if I just went away, seeing the dark hearts of Christians who couldn’t forgive, that I knew then I was genuinely lost to God.

I wrote in another installment on Forgiveness how to return to a forgiven state, and how to forgive.  The above events in my life are where I had to learn this process.

1. I turned to God.  I had to get back to the fundamentals of the faith, here.  I confessed that I know there is a God.  I confessed that I know that this God is THE creator, the great I AM of Scripture, the one who created us Humans.  I confessed that man fell from God just as I had fallen from God.  I confessed that God gave His only begotten Son to die for the sins I have committed, so I will not have to face God’s wrath, but have eternal life in Jesus Christ.  Then I confessed my anger.

I was angry at me.  A Lot.

I was angry at Christians who could not offer a healing hand, but offered only condemnation.  I was angry, angry, angry.  It was a deep and abiding anger that burned hot.  This was the hardest thing for me to face.  My anger.  God showed me how my anger does not further the Kingdom of God.

Until I could learn to place that at the feet of God, and let Him take it out of my heart, there would be no further progress in my restoration to Him.  Period.  This kind of anger has no place in the Kingdom, and I cannot return to the service of God if I insist on being angry.  It took from around 2007 to 2012 to work through that.  But God did His wonderful work in me, and helped me be rid of that hate and anger.  It is gone, now.  It is a distant echo.  God has shown me what I need to learn from it, and has healed me.  The lesson I learned here is, I cannot turn to people for help.  I must first turn to God.  People will be too married to their opinions and agenda to be able to help.  And I learned that that, too, is OK.  We are all human, and have things to work out with God.  It is not my place to judge them, or be angry with them.

2. BE WILLING.  I was in love with my anger.  It was all that drove me.  I had forgotten that there is more power in a whisper of God’s love than there is an a ton of anger and hate.  So this was a hard one foe me.  Here were people speaking death into my life, into my marriage, and “In the name of the Lord” letting me know just how irredeemable I was.  I was hurt, disappointed, angry, and these feelings had become so familiar, and so normal to me, that letting go of them was worse than having surgery with out pain killers.  (That happened to me once, it was awful).

But, Just as Jesus prayed in the garden, the night before His arrest, “Not my will, but thine.”  It took a lot of work for me to be willing to give up my anger.  I loved having an excuse to throw tantrums.  But God wanted to turn me into a man of God, not a child of the world.  I had to be willing to release that anger, hostility, rage, and resentment of all those well meaning dragons.  And, with the power of God’s grace, I did, and do, and will.  I willed that my will align with God’s will.  Not for their snakes, but mine.  My attitude had no place in God’s will for my life.  If I want to truly return to Him, I had to let go  of anger.  And the more my will aligned with God’s desire for my life, the more anger diminished, until it was only a memory.  And I was surprised by the intense JOY that replaced the anger.  Obedience to God brings joy, even when you think your world is going to hell.  I understood grace.  I felt mercy.  From there, it was a simple thing to let go of my hurt and anger, and forgive all the well intentioned dragons.  It is easier to accept those Christians who speak death in my life.  They honestly think they are doing the right thing.  How often had I thought that about my anger and hurt.  I get it.  We are all saved, but we are all incomplete.  We are all having to grow.  Now I am able to understand what Jesus meant when he prayed on the cross, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

I AM FREE!.  I AM FREE!  I AM FREE!!!  Free to dive deep into the word of God, free to love.  Free to pray for those who hate me.  Free to serve God.  Free to pray with my wife, who has forgiven me my sin.  What a joy it is to be married to the most incredible woman in the world.  I could search all my life and not find a woman as wonderful and great as she is.

I have given up “my right” to anger and hate, and unforgiveness.  For the first time in 20 years, I feel free, loving, forgiven, and I feel hope.  I feel JOY.  I can dance with King David and sing that the Lord my God, the Living God, has restored my soul.

It doesn’t matter one whit what people will say to you, about you, against you.  There is NOTHING on this earth you can do about it EXCEPT FORGIVE THEM.  Then you can let it go, and you will find you actually really love these well intentioned dragons.  REALLY love them and care about them.

The are just as fallen as you are.  You need to worry about your own walk in the Lord. Even if you have to do what I did and return to the fundamentals and grow from there.

I have not ever felt this freedom before.  EVER.  What a glorious God we serve.  What a powerful God he is that he can root out my sin and hold me close, and tell me he loves me.  It no longer matters who else loves me, not now that I know where I stand with God.

Listen, people who have their minds made up about you will only change when God deals with them.  Not a minute sooner.  You may raise people from the dead, right before their eyes, and they might still speak death into your life.  It is OK, the religious of Jesus’s day did the same thing.

Now, go, sit at God’s feet, and do business with the Lord.  I can tell you, as one who has come out of that bath, it is good, it is joy, it is clean.  God is GREAT.  And I thank God for this freedom.

I really want to hear from you if you need prayer.  I don’t care what evil you have done, I will not turn you away.  I can do this because it is what God has done for me.

I genuinely love you in the Name of Jesus, and because of God’s great love in my heart.

Now, go be about it.

David G. Perkins.

 

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The Jewels in Your Crown: Forgiveness, Part 2


“and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Matt 6:12 – Part of “The Lord’s Prayer” given by Jesus Christ

“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”  Matt 6:15-16 – Spoken by Jesus Christ

I apologize for the inevitable length of this installment.  I am doing my best to condense this without leaving out the important stuff.  There will be other parts following this one, but this part will help complete the groundwork of the battlefield of life where Forgiveness is our greatest weapon.

A great deal of this depends on you.  It depends on the state of your heart, and your willingness to genuinely forgive.  I will be covering this in this installment.  I appreciate your patience and indulgence with the length of this article.

In part one I covered a few of the stumbling blocks in our daily walk in Christ, where it comes to forgiveness.

1. Being willing and desiring to forgive.  It is MY WILL that is forgiving or unforgiving.

2. Rehearsing over and over again the litany of wrongs done to you.

3. Pride – the belief that the person who offended you ought to know you are offended and ought to come to you to ask for forgiveness, that YOU shouldn’t have to go to them.  (This one is a whopper, as Jesus himself went to the people who needed forgiveness instead of the other way around.)

4. Fear – Fear of being taken advantage of, Fear of rejection, fear of being misunderstood.

Most of our unforgiveness toward others can be boiled down to these 4 things.  I have no doubt you can come up with more than this list, but I think these are the roots of unforgiveness.

Sometimes these stumbling blocks hang around, impeding your walk for various reasons.  Perhaps you have to continue to forgive someone who insists on hurting you.  Perhaps you are angry at them, or angry for some other reason.  Perhaps you harbor anger and don’t even know it.

Before anyone decides I should walk in their shoes, let me tell you.  I have been hurt deeply by people I love completely.   The details are none of your business, but I genuinely do understand the intense pain of betrayal, of intentional deception, of abandonment by brothers in the Lord.  I have been disowned, cursed, gossiped about, lied to, and some have done far worse things than this to me.  So believe me when I tell you, I understand the pain of the deep hurt by loved ones.

When this type of hurt happens, you feel as if you are in an explosion.  Nothing is the same again, ever.  It takes time even to realize how real this situation is.  It takes time to regain your bearings from the intensity of this sudden hurt.  Your friends may abandon or betray you, your loved ones will offer you anything but hope and mercy and grace.  Those closest to you will judge you.

These are hurts that take time to get over.  The hard part about this hurt is, if you are not careful, you will let anger and bitterness grow roots and take over your heart and mind.  When this happens, your ability to love and trust and commune with the Living God is impeded by the bitterness that flows in your veins.

I am begging you today, if this is you, find a way to stop yourself from getting deeper involved in the anger and bitterness.  The last 20 years of my life are the result of me losing my bearings, and taking matters in my own hands.

When Jesus was instructing the disciples on how to pray, He included this phrase, “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Matt 6:12.  After that, He continued to instruct his disciples saying, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”  Matt 6:15-16

You will know when you have unforgiveness because your joy in the lord is diminished, your communion with Him feels incomplete.  You have a stumbling block keeping your walk from being joyous,, fulfilling and growing.  You are at a standstill with God.

Listen to these hints from the Spirit of God.  If there is unforgiveness between you and God, it is likely because you have unforgiveness between you and someone else.  Or unconfessed sin. God will wait right there with you, as long as it takes until you take care of your business.  The good news is that God will be with you because He always empowers obedience to Him.

If God acted in any other way toward you, while you hold bitterness and unforgiveness and anger in your heart, then He would be contradicting His own nature.  He would be condoning sin.

Jesus taught that we reap what we sow.  An unforgiving spirit affects every aspect of your life.  It will come back to you with interest.  When it does, this is when anger and bitterness can set root.

An unforgiving spirit will generate in you a critical spirit.  Unforgiveness is detrimental and destructive, and will influence everything else you try to do.  If you find yourself being overly critical or overly cynical, there is a chance you are harboring unforgiveness, that has given root to bitterness.

When Jesus was teaching the disciples about forgiveness, Peter (A man I can clearly identify with), asked Jesus:  “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?”

“Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” Matt 18:21-22

Was Jesus telling Peter you have to forgive someone 490 times, then all bets are off?  No.  Forgiveness takes practice, and Jesus was telling Peter you must forgive repeatedly.  The good news is that, the more you do it, the better you get at doing it.

In other words, Jesus was telling Peter, and the others, that there is no measuring rod.  I can tell you that, by the time you get in to the habit of forgiving, you actually lose count.  We do not return insult for insult, but we bless those who curse us, and pray for those who despitefully use us.  When you get in this habit of this kind of Grace and Mercy, forgiveness will grow in your heart until you have a joy about forgiving.  In other words, When you can learn to forgive, you will find there is NO LIMIT on forgiveness.

Forgiveness comes from your heart, not your lips.  How many times has someone said or done something to offend you, and immediately they said “I’m Sorry”, and you said “I forgive you”.  Then after they left, you couldn’t wait to tell everyone you know how you were wronged?

So the burning question here is, since Jesus has forgiven you ALL you have done against God, how many times and things will you forgive others?

Unless forgiveness comes from the heart, it is not forgiveness. You don’t really have to forget, either.  If it is genuine forgiveness, when it comes to your mind later on, it will be in the form of lessons learned.

To not forgive means you would rather wear the chains of slavery to anger and bitterness.  Some people actually fall in love with their anger and bitterness.  It gives them something to wallow in as an excuse to not do business with God.  It feeds our vanity to be this way.  We get to present ourselves as the wronged ones, and try to illicit sympathy form others, so you can look like you are really suffering for your faith.

THIS is really a faithless act, and is sin, too.  It is pride and fear that keeps you in chains.

Who are you angry with?  What did they say or do that means they can never be forgiven?  What have you said or done that means God can never forgive you?  Do you want differential treatment over this issue?  In order to be forgiven, you have to forgive.  You cannot get rid of this anger or hurt by running away from it.  You have to put your offering down and go deal with it.  You have to let the Holy Spirit deal through you for healing to really happen.

Hurt is hard, Especially when it is repeated hurt, willful hurt, intentional hurt.  No person who deeply loves can just switch off the hurt. It is a process.  It may not come instantly.

Here is the process that leads to forgiveness.  You may have to do this every 5 minutes, or every day, or as often as it takes until the Spirit of God has worked in you to forgive.

STEP 1:  ANGER  You have to acknowledge your anger.  Confess it before the Lord.  Lay it at His feet.  He loves you and cares for you.

Make this confession after you have asked forgiveness for sin and anger: “Because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, I have experienced God’s total forgiveness in my life”.  “I have been saved by his grace, His love, and His mercy.”  “All of my forgiveness has come from God.”

FORGIVENESS is one of the very first gifts God gives you.  Forgiveness is ongoing in your life, because you are human, and make mistakes.  But God is HAPPY and DESIRING to forgive.  It is His joy to do this in your heart.  He will show you, that the forgiveness that began at the Cross, is still going on today, in you, in your life.  He will give you the gift of forgiveness.  Do business with God first.  Forgiveness is a gift that will grow in your heart the more of it you give away.  God has been doing this for you every day of your whole life.

Make this confession:  “I AM FORGIVEN!”  Keep doing this until it becomes real to you.  It is oftentimes a process.  But the anger has to go away.

STEP 2:  BE WILLING. Be willing to confess your anger, hostility, rage, resentment, and whatever feelings you have toward that person.  Ask God to forgive your anger and hurt for that person.  BE SPECIFIC.  When you are specific, it breaks the bondage.  You must be willing to deal with it specifically and personally.  If you are genuinely confessing something, you have to deal with it.  God will wait for you to do this, and He will empower your obedience.

STEP 3:   THE WORD.  Learn that your unforgiveness is a violation of the word of God.  If I have an unforgiving spirit, I have sinned against God and others.  Know what the Bible has to say about forgiveness and unforgiveness.  Look it up in your Bible index.  You have to know the word, confess the word, and recognize this in your heart.  Out of the overflow of your heart, comes the issue of your lips.

STEP 4:  ASK GOD to forgive you.  Be specific about what you have said, or done, or felt in your heart against the person who hurt you.  God will take that and relieve you of it.   Confess all of it.  You may have to do this a few times as things float to the surface.

There is nothing in the scriptures about CONDITIONAL forgiveness.  The Bible doesn’t say, “Ask your brother to forgive you UNLESS…he rejects you, misunderstands you, or it is just too painful for you.”  You will not find that in the Bible.

We are to forgive no matter what.  No matter the outcome.  No matter the consequences.  Even if that person doubles up on your pain, forgive anyway.

So, here we are dealing with the root of the problem.  It is an act of will that you forgive.  It was an act of will that Jesus died for you.  Jesus prayed at the garden, “Not MY will, father, but thine.”  God helped Jesus align Jesus will with the father’s will.  In the same manner, God will empower you to align your will with His if you ask from deep in your heart.  You have to be willing.

You may have to go to that brother and ask him or her to forgive you for your unforgiveness toward him or her.  You have an attitude in your heart. You have judged him unworthy of forgiveness.  Even IF he has wronged you, you still need to go to that person and ask him to forgive you of your attitude for him.

Pray this:  “By an act of MY will, Father, and by the power of the Holy spirit that lives within me, Father, I lay down my anger, my bitterness, my ‘right’ to be offended, my hurt.  I lay them all down at your feet,.”

This stops being about your feelings when you do this.  It becomes an act of your will.  Say, “I choose to lay it down”.  You will that God takes it from you.  If you leave this at the Father’s feet, God will remove the hurt from your life.  Acknowledge His forgiveness as you lay down your anger.  There may be MANY people you are angry with. Be willing to do this for each and every one of them.

It is a process.

God will let you know if you need to go to that person or not.  God will strengthen you to admit and gracefully confess to that person the conflict, as you seek forgiveness from that person about your attitude toward him.

If God sends you to that person, and you talk to him, DON’T ENUMERATE THE LIST OF THINGS DONE WRONG AGAINST YOU.  Remember what it says in II Corinthians that Love does not keep an accounting of the wrongs done against it.  God is Love, and His Spirit abides in you.  You don’t need to rehearse all the wrongs done against you to that person.  It will only make things worse.   Confess the attitude you have had toward that person, ask his forgiveness for your attitude, and leave it at that.  God will do the rest.

Genuine forgiveness does not build up a legal case, or a defense for your hurt, and say, “I will forgive you BUT.”  There are no buts to forgiveness.  You either forgive or you don’t.  Forgiveness is an act of grace, mercy, and unconditional love.  Forgiveness is given with no limitations or demands.

Don’t front-load your imagination about forgiveness.  In other words, don’t try to predict what his reaction will be.  You may be surprised at his reaction.

When you genuinely forgive others, not only do you set yourself free of the chains that bind your walk with God, but in the act of forgiving, you also set that person free of those same chains.

There is a true and genuine feeling of freedom when you allow God to work in you to remove the stumbling blocks of unforgiveness and anger.  I know this because I have been doing this.  The more I do this, the more free I feel in my heart and soul.  Anger becomes a last resort for me, instead of a first reaction.

BUT SUPPOSE THEY LIVE 1000 MILES AWAY, OR ARE ALREADY DEAD?

Ask yourself, “Is the unforgiveness still in my heart?”  If the answer is “yes” then you have a stumbling block.  Forgive them anyway.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION:  Get two chairs.  Set them 2 feet apart facing each other.  You sit in one, and and you imagine that that person is sitting in the other one.  Tell that person exactly what you would say if they were really sitting in that chair.  Confess your attitude.  Ask forgiveness.  Chances are, if that person were a real difficulty in your life, you will have to do this several times before it gets real, and you forgive.  Just do it.  Ask their forgiveness for your attitude.   (I got this exercise from Charles Stanley).

Once you deal with that issue, claim the forgiveness by faith.  then tell yourself, “That is the end of THAT!”  If it turns out that it is not the end of that, do it again until it is.  I promise you, one day, you will get up from that chair, and you will be genuinely free of unforgiveness.

HOW Will I KNOW WHEN I HAVE REALLY FORGIVEN THEM?

I’ll tell you how you will know.  And I have experienced this repeatedly, so I know this is a fact.

The next time you think about them, there will not be any “static” in your heart toward them.  You will have a sense of freedom from that burden.  The harsh feelings are gone.  You will feel compassion for them and hope the best for them.  Somehow, you will be able to accept them as they are.  If the grievance is over a terrible wrong this person has done, let God have His way with that person.  It is not your place to hold unforgiveness.

When you are really and truly set free, you will be able to say in your heart, “Thank you God for teaching me about your grace.  Thank you for this lesson I would have not have learned if you had not brought me through this.  You have genuinely turned my curse into a blessing.”

This is not a one time thing.  You will have to forgive over and over in your walk.  How many times?  70 X 7.

I love you in the Lord.

Let me know if you need prayer for anything.

I am your little brother in Christ Jesus.

David G. Perkins

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The Jewels in Your Crown: Forgiveness Part 1


And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. EPH 4:32 KJV

Definitions: 
kind – χρηστός – chrestos – good, be ye good…., gracious, be ye gracious…., easy, take it easy on each other.
tenderhearted – εὔσπλαγχνος – eusplagchnos, – pitiful, tender-hearted.  Have pity. The Greek workd picture here is a picture of it coming from your guts.  The Greeks felt that strong emotion, passion and genuine emotion came from your guts.  Have pity flowing out of you.  Have tenderheartedness flow from you. 
forgiving – χαρίζομαι – charizomai – to grant as a favor, that is, gratuitously (freely, undeservedly), in kindness (see def above), pardon or rescue: – deliver, (frankly) forgive, (freely) give, grant.
Keep on becoming kind to each other. Have pity, and favor, and grace, however undeservedly, forgive even as God forgave you for the sake of Christ.
A few years ago, a brother in the Lord told me he forgave me.   He had been very angry with me.   Somehow I was not convinced that he meant it, but I accepted the effort, as I love this person, and want to grow in the Lord with him.   Later on, I went to his property to help him with an electrical problem.   I did the work, shook his hand, and left.  That evening, someone else told me that the whole time I was there, he was bad mouthing me to anyone who would listen, and that he had been bad mouthing me all over town.   As I suspected, I knew that that brother was still angry with me.

Forgiveness isn’t easy.

I am not talking about whether I forgive him, because I honestly do.   I honestly love this person.  I am telling you something that I would normally not consider any of your business in order to illustrate a point.

Forgiveness is not easy.

The root of unforgiveness is anger.
The root of anger is fear.

Anger is a chain that binds you to sin.  Sometimes we get angry with others over things we know we ourselves are tempted to do.  Sometimes we get angry for a genuine wrong committed.  Sometimes we get angry because we are afraid.  We know in our heads that perfect love casts out all fear.  But how do we get that into our heart?  How do we let go of Anger?

It is a process.
Some people do not even know they harbor unforgiveness.  They remain slaves to the unforgiveness.  Unforgiveness will stop you from growing spiritually.  Eventually, the poison of unforgiveness will consume you untill you become heard hearted and bitter.  It will rot your bones.
So a decent definition of Anger that leads to unforgiveness is that Anger is a strong feeling of INTENSE displeasure or indignation or hostility as a result of a real or imagined threat (fear), or insult (pride), or frustration (impatience), or injustice toward yourself or someone who is very important to you.
Forgiveness is the willful giving up of that rage, displeasure, indignation, hostility, threat, insult and frustration.  You give up the “right to get even”.
Unforgiveness is a deliberate refusal to forgive.  It is the belief that you have the right to hold a grudge because: Someone has got to pay!,  He has hurt me. , She lied to me. , She said I was this or that.,  She didn’t say “HI” to me yesterday.,  He is two faced.,  He lies about his faith by saying one thing and doing another.
However, saying you forgive, and experiencing it are two different things.
Forgiveness says, “I give up my right to pay you back.”
Look at the book of Mark 11:25 –
And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you your tresspasses.  But if you do not fogive, neither will your Father which is in Heaven forgive your tresspasses.  Mark 11:25
 
Until we can forgive, we have to lay down our progress, our gifts to god, our growth in the Spirit of God, our effectiveness to demonstrate grace, love and mercy.
 
What are the obstacles to Forgiveness?  There may be many, but they can be reduced, by thoughtful analysis to 4 things:
1.  YOUR WILL – It ias to be your WILL and Desire to forgive.  Unwillingness and not wanting to forgive are deliberate acts.  You have to do this on purpose.
2.  PRIDE – The arrogance of pride gives you the self righteous attitude that says, He or She should come to me to ASK for forgiveness.  I shouldn’t have to go to them.  Or if you are the one who needs forgiveness, you say to yourself, “Sure it bothers me that this happened, but I don’t think I did any harm, and besides, I was right when I did it.”
3.  REHEARSING – This one is something every humand being does.  This takes real discipline to overcome, and can be overcome by a lot of prayer, and realization of just how much GOd has forgiven you.   The more you go over it in your mind, the farther from grace you get.  You rehearse in your mind and heart the wrongs or offenses done against you.  This will only strengthen the chains that bind you, and will eventually become a poison that turns into a well spring of bitterness.  The Joy of the Lord evades you.  happiness becomes a memory.  Anger becomes your reputation.  You get stuck right where you are in your spiritual growth.  Eventually, you become content with stunted growth, or your heart becomes so hard that you no longer desire a working relationship with God.
4.  FEAR – Wether you are the one who needs to forgive, or needs forgiveness, FEAR can stop you dead, too.  Maybe you are afraid you will be taken advantage of by the person that you need to do business with.  Maybe you have a fear of being rejected.  Perhaps you are afraid of rejection.  These fears are real, and it is possible that these things will happen.   But you have to have the courage to face this fear and do the right thing.  THere is nothing you can do to control the reactions of others.  You can only obey God, and leave the rest to him.  This is letting go of fear.
Dealing with these 4 things above will give you FREEDOM from the enslavement of Anger and Fear.  It will free you from the spirit and heartlessness of Unforgiveness.  The flow of living water will return to you, and you will know the joy of your salvation again.
Sometimes forgiveness is stalled by the following things:
Friendly but bad advice.  Your brothers and sisters in the lord love you, and they mean well, but they are just as human and fallible as you are.  They will tell you, “Well, if I were you, I’d…”, or “He needs to suffer…”  “Why don’t you just leave him, he is not good for you…”, or “Buddy, we need to go have a talk with him ‘in love’ and straighten him out”
Have you been told this?  Have you said it to others.  Friends mean well.  You should always be glad of the number of friends you have.  But you MUST ask yourself, “Is this FRIENDLY advice GODLY advice?”  Do nothing that will contradict the nature of God, or reflect poorly on your walk with God.  Taking matters in your hands, with the heart felt endorsement of your friends, is till wrong.
PARTIAL FORGIVENESS.  
Maybe he or she did several little things, or one big and several little ones, or some combination like that.  Do you list them (rehearse) and say, “Well, I can forgive that, but not this, and I can forgive those, but not these!”?  Partial forgiveness is just like partial obedience.  Partial forgiveness IS unforgiveness.  Partial obedience is DISOBEDIENCE.  Don’t take half measures when God showed His love for you by going all the way to the cross for your sins.
MAKE EXCUSES. This little fox is a sly one.
This is what some people do to avoide genuine forgiveness.  They might say things like, “THey probably didn’t mean that.”, or. “It was probably a mistake.”.  If you use excuses to justify someone elses wrong, not only are you deluding yourself, and setting yourself up for more of the same, but you short circuit your ability to discern between right and wrong, and you stop the other person’s chance of learning from his mistakes.  Forgiveness is just as much an act of love, as it is an act of grace.  When you love the unlovely, it pours coals on his heart, and will ultimately lead him to repentance. This is the same behavior you hear about when you read the testimony of the battered woman.  She made excuses for the batterer.  Forgiveness is not for sissies.
Unforgiveness puts you in danger of the judgement of God.  “But if you do not forgive  neither will your Father which is in Heaven forgive your trespasses ”  Mark 11:25  
 
You risk your growth in the Lord.  You risk having God stop dealing with you until you have done business with those who you need to forgive, or who you need to seek forgiveness from.
Forgiveness sets you free.  It cleanses your soul.  It teaches you about Godly love in a way that no other action will.  You will become like Jesus Christ the more you obey.
I will finish this up in part 2, at least this part of the facet on the gem that is Forgiveness.  There is more, and it is not all fire and brimstone.  Hang in there.  It gets better.
OH!  And yes it is a process.  How long does it take until you can come clean and forgive?  I don’t know.  Sometimes it takes a long time.  It took me a very long time to forgive someone I used to know.  The hurt was deep, and God had to do a work in me.  With that brother who said he forgave me, but didn’t, I am good with that, and I forgive his dishonesty, and his gossip.  I am free of the harm he has done.  I love this person and would take a bullet for him without hesitation.
I have to keep in mind this verse: Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken; lest thou hear thy servant curse thee: For oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise hast cursed others. Ecc 7:21-22See you next time for Part 2 of this facet on Forgiveness.
I love you
David Perkins

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The Jewels in Your Crown: Forgiveness, A Jewel With Many Facets – Introduction


And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32 KJV

A person very close to my heart told me that she would like to read about Forgiveness. So here we go.

I hope, through this series, to show that forgiveness is fundamental to our faith, our well being and our growth as Christians.

Unforgiveness has the power to destroy you, your faith, your walk with God, your health, your mind. Unforgiveness is a pernicious poison that, if not dealt with, will ultimately destroy everything you are trying to achieve. The lack of forgiveness is a stumbling block that inhibits your growth.

I have struggled with this issue a great deal over these last 20 years. I have sinned, and been sinned against. I have had to deal with both sides of the equation of Forgiveness.

I have had to forgive myself & others. I have had to seek, and am still seeking ways and means to get forgiveness from others. I have had to learn that it is not a switch that you can just flip, and voila, forgiveness happens. It is often a process. Sometimes painful, but necessary. Sometimes it is not reciprocated, or appreciated. Sometimes, others will never choose to forgive you, or receive your forgiveness.

I have discovered that, when God deals with you in the forgiveness arena, it can be painful and joyful. Sometimes the pain precedes the joy. I say this because, when God deals with you over your need to forgive, or receive forgiveness, the dirty laundry comes out.

God will deal with you over your anger, your pride, your distorted sense of God’s righteousness, and the sin of self-righteousness. If you are listening, you will be reminded of just how much you have been forgiven of – all the things you did before you were a Christian, and especially all the things God has graciously forgiven you of after you became a Christian.

This series has already become a challenge for me. In writing the outline for this series, I found I had been keeping a grievance on a back shelf. I had forgotten it was there, until I ran across a few verses that reminded me of it. I immediately had to stop what I was doing and seek that forgiveness from that person, and forgive that person for wrongs done. We both had sinned against each other, and we both had buried it deep. The effort was painful. Obedience isn’t always a “cumbayah” experience. The reward was so sweet, so good, so joyous, I wonder why I ever kept that grievance rotting in my mind. I am free from that chain, and so is the person I went to. We both needed it, and it was very good.

If you are going to be a Child of God, a Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, Forgiveness is one of the first muscles you will have to develop. Forgiveness is not for sissies. It is not for the prideful. It is not for the self-righteous. We have to humble ourselves before God in order to be forgiven, and we have to understand grace and mercy in order to forgive.

Forgiveness is more important than I realized. It is powerful. It serves you to forgive others, and it further’s the kingdom of God when you do it.

I ask your forgiveness because I cannot offer an outline for this series. I have only written this introduction and the first two parts of this series. There will be more, because, as with every true doctrine of God, every doctrine is a gem with many facets.

I hope you will get as much out of this series as I have gotten researching it.

I will leave you with this fact, and a question:

FACT: Unforgiveness has its roots in Anger. So does fear.

QUESTION: Why are you angry? What are you in fear of?

That is where I had to start.

I will see you tomorrow with : FORGIVE, Part 1

In Christ

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

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HOW GOD SEES IT


“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.  
In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
Proverbs 3: 5 & 6  NASB

HOW I SEE IT
When someone reading your blog describes it as “interesting”, they mean, “Which Zoo donated the monkey for this experiment?” In  certain countries, my writing is considered a social disease, and it might be the real cause of all the trouble in the Middle East.  None-the-less, I have actually had 10 readers, and a couple of them are now subscribers.  Please accept my gratitude, the check is in the mail.

HOW GOD SEES IT
A recent career debacle has left me seeing that, after almost 20 years doing the same thing, I suddenly have to reinvent myself.  What I wanted to do when the rug was pulled was to run around like my hair was on fire, panic, grow a healthy crop of ulcers, and basically be an insomniac.  What I did instead was pray.  Really, I prayed.   And, this is the truth, I immediately felt a peace about all of this.  I knew that since I was radioactive in my career, I would not be able to do what I had been doing anymore.  I had to be remade.  I wasn’t worried because, after 20 years of running from God, I had spent the last 4 years slowly returning. I found out when I did that that I had not done anything but cross the palm of God’s hand.  Some of my recent blogs described my return to God, and how you can return too.

So, here I am, career-less, and wondering what to do.  My wife and I prayed and prayed about this.  Just a couple of weeks after being home, in between job searches, I had the overwhelming compulsion to start writing again.  I had not written a thing in 20 years.  Writing was not even my first love.  Music was my first love.  But, suddenly, I got an overwhelming desire to sit and write.  So, I prayed again.  God let me know through several confirmations that I am to write something every day.  Not only that, I am to write a blog.

I know this might sound crazy to you, but eventually, you will see that this stuff really happens.  It happened to me.  Here is where Proverbs 3:5 & 6 comes in to play.  I needed a new path, and God has given me a thing to do.  I am doing it.  I honestly do not understand the why’s and wherefore’s of this, but one thing God has made clear to me, I am to write.

I am writing this for you.  I don’t know who you are.  I don’t know what you have been through, or are going through.  But I know that, as I obey God and write, He will empower my writing.  He will do this because of you.  Like me, you had given up on God, friends, family, and basically life itself.  To tell the truth, that 20 years of working in various jobs, for various companies, doing the same or related things, was not even related to who I really am, or what I really want to do with my life.  Chances are you are there now.

God restores all of us if we let him.  He is calling you.  The reason I am doing this blog is two fold.  1. I am obeying God.  2. God wants you to know you are not alone, that someone out here gets it.  And he wants you to know that He cares for you, and wants you to come home.
You do not even have to clean up to return to Him.  He will take care of that for you.  All you have to do is come home.

HOW I HOPE YOU SEE IT
Personally, I hope my blog eventually takes off, but that is not my real goal.  Over time I will be writing about several issues that may reach you.  This is for you, not me.  What I want out of this exercise is irrelevant to what God wants to accomplish.

You see, a revival is about to break loose, and God wants you to be a part of that revival.  You have a role to play.  You and I have to put down all our anger, desire for revenge, hate of the church, grudges, and whatever sin besets us.  We need to get our own lives in order so God can equip us to lead in the upcoming revival.

By my own understanding of things, I should be panicking because 8 weeks later, I am still unemployed.  But as I understand God, I simply have to trust Him, and HE will direct my paths. This is what He wants to do for you, too.

I have no illusions about being a “Great Writer“, but I know this is what I am supposed to be doing right now.  I am doing this out of Love for God, and in obedience to Him, and out of a genuine desire to see you return to God, too.  I do this because God has changed my heart.  I no longer feel the anger I felt.  I no longer hate.  I now love because He who is in me IS love.  And I love you, and want to see you join the battle and lead from the front in the upcoming revival.

Who ever you are, I hope this letter finds you.

Your Brother in Jesus Christ

David
sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

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HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?


Walk as Children of LightA long time ago, while I was trying to be a student at Seminary, I attended a small church in Fort Worth, TX.  This particular church had more Seminary professors per square foot than almost any other church in Fort Worth.   I always wondered why this church was as small as it was.  The Pastor, another Phd. grad from Seminary, was trying with all his might to get this church to wake up and get about the task of evangelizing.

The Pastor was really working on this, one Sunday morning.  His sermon was full of urgency for the call of Christians to obey the will of God.  While he was preaching, the free verse narrative came to my mind.  When I originally posted this on my old web site, I thought I was giving a clarion call to the church.  What I only recently came to understand is…

…God was talking to ME.

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?

     I was lying there in the garden, almost asleep.  A man came up the pathway, stopped and leaned his hands on the gate.  He looked around and asked if the garden was mine.  I told him it was not mine, butI was keeping it for my Master.  He asked if I knew much about gardening.

“Well, of course I do!”, I replied.

I told him that I had been to the best schools of gardening, and would probably forget  more about gardening in one day, than he would learn in a year.  Inundated him with a deluge of information from my knowledge of gardening.  I felt that would surely quiet my unwelcome guest.

There was a moment of silence.  Perhaps I had been too hard on him.  I felt justified, though, he did disturb my rest.

He looked at me and said:

Have you been a gardener so long, yet without fruit?

Do you know all about the soils, yet have not tilled one foot of furrow?

Are all the seeds familiar with you, but you have not put one in to the ground?

See, the weeds outnumber the leaves on the trees, the thistles are more abundant than the flowers.

What kind of Husbandman would let his masters’ garden fall to such disarray?

You boast of being a gardener but have no fruit for all your knowledge.

How sad for you when the Master comes to judge the fruit of your labor.

I sat there in stunned silence, at a complete loss for words.  I noticed, as he vanished before my very eyes, that the gate on which he had been resting was bloody from wounds that had pierced his hands.

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Faith

FAITH TO BE RECKLESS


“FAITH IS NOT BELIEF WITHOUT PROOF, BUT TRUST WITHOUT RESERVATION.” – Anon

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Heb 11:1 – ESV

FACTOID: “The assurance of things hoped for (elpizomenōn hupostasis). Hupostasis is a very common word from Aristotle on and comes from huphistēmi (hupo, under, histēmi, intransitive), what stands under anything (a building, a contract, a promise). ” From Robertson’s Word Pictures

In this case, it is used as a contract of deed. Faith is the TITLE-DEED of things hoped for. It is the document that states clearly that you can have confidence in God‘s promises.

 FIRST THINGS FIRST

Faith is the Title Deed That says, “Because you have believed in Jesus Christ, you have inherited eternal life.” Almost everyone knows John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” That is the language of the Title-Deed.

The details of that title deed are detailed in the verses that follow:

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” John 3:16-18 – ESV

Here you can see that there is spelled out a distinction between who inherits and who doesn’t inherit. Because you have believed, your first inheritance is Eternal Life. Those words are from Christ Himself. You can rest assured of your salvation, which is the language of the second half of the verse: “the conviction of things not seen.” Heb 11:1 – ESV

The number of Humans who have been to Heaven and returned to tell about it are few and far between. Chances are that you and I are not in that group. Because we hold the title deed to an eternal life, we can hold to the conviction that it has already been granted to us. You don’t have to stop what you are doing and go see the real estate. It is already your inheritance. Nothing in the world can take your inheritance away because it was signed over to you in the blood of the one who promised it to you.

BUT WHAT ELSE?

THAT is the bazillion dollar question!

The reason we were not raptured the second we accepted Christ as our Saviour and Lord is because he has a work for us to do here. Jesus has given you the authority to do those things. Jesus said to the Disciples: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” John 14:12 NASB

Anyone with one eye and half a brain can tell things are going terribly wrong on this planet. THe reason we are still here is so we can bring the gospel to anyone who will listen. We have been given the authority to do that by Jesus Himself. You do NOT need your church’s permission to obey Christ. You do not need anything but a solid understanding of the scripture and faith. And Jesus has guaranteed that you will have all the tools He had at your disposal, PLUS more.

These facts are in the Title-Deed of our inheritance. While we are still here on this planet, we have the promise of salvation, and the promise that, if we believe, and obey, we are empowered to do all that Jesus Himself did to bring others to Himself.

BUT IT IS HARD!

Yes. It is hard. And most likely, people will think you are insane. People will hate you. People will run from you. People will lie about you, try to trip you up, and basically call you nuts…and it may begin with your family.

I can attest before God, I have, on more than one occasion, seen people try to kill me for the sake of the Gospel, but God always delivers. In fact, one of the would be assassins became a Christian, and later his wife became a Christian. Today, they live in California, and have a pretty good church going out there. They reach people that most ordinary Christians would run in fear from.

These things can be done because FAITH is your Title-Deed that assures you that whatever you ask in Jesus name will be done for you, if you are praying in God’s will. This assurance is the conviction of the thing hoped for.

“Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. “ – Mat 18:19 NASB

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” – Mat 7:7

“For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” – Mat 7:8

BE RECKLESS ABOUT IT, TOO.

My favorite devotional is written by the daughter of Oswald Chambers. Chambers was the Chaplain for the British Airmen during WWI, while they were stationed in the Saudi deserts. Chambers wrote a diary that later became the famous devotional book called “My Utmost For His Highest”.

In several of the devotionals, Chambers describes this faith, this assurance, this conviction of things hoped for, as something we have to throw ourselves into with “reckless abandon”. Have no thought for yourself image, for your safety, for anything other than being willing to take that one step off the cliff, knowing that God is there to see you through to a path of His design.

There is a child like freedom in this kind of faith. When my daughter was a toddler, she had no problem or hesitation about running as fast as she could and jumping into my arms. She knew without hesitation that I would catch her. We have to put aside our practical worldliness. We have to put aside all concerns for how we will look to others. We just have to have the Joy of our salvation, and the faith that whatever it is that God asked you to do, you can do it with out fear or concern. Jesus promised you that you have eternity as your reward, and all the power in the Kingdom of Heaven to accomplish what God has asked you to do.

Do we really want revival? Start with yourself. Be recklessly abandoned to the assurance of the things hoped for, and stand on the conviction of the things not seen.

We need revival in this land. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit to do that thing that God has asked us to do. We can do this because we have our salvation. We have our salvation because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. The fields are ripe for harvest. Let’s be about it.

 

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The Ethics of Hell


[NOTE: I have kept a copy of this article preserved and encrypted in the event that it is somehow altered by a person or persons other than me.]

“Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work. “Ecc 3:16 -17

THE SETTING:

Ray Charles can see that the Government of the United States has abandoned all that is holy, moral, legal and right. Oftentimes, I stand in stupefied wonder that “We the People” have let this happen.

The condition we are in today didn’t happen overnight, either. I remember vividly, in the 1960’s, when God was being kicked out of school. Today, there is a concerted and overt effort to remove Christianity from the common arena.

What dumbfounds me is that:

A: What passes for a representative republic openly demonstrates, with great pride, every effort it can to destroy all that was considered good, all that was considered right, all that is constitutional, all references to the Living God, and His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

B: What passes for government today openly calls Christians, and tea party members “terrorists” while giving a free pass to the people who want to kill us.

And

C: We are tolerating this behavior.

MY REACTION

I have no doubt you are aware of the same things I am.  This has been a real struggle for me. I was raised in the South where being an American is just as important as being a Christian. In fact, a lack of patriotism usually meant that your neighbors will question your salvation.

I was raised to believe that we are a Constitutional Republic, not a democracy. That the Constitution IS the baseline by which all laws are measured, and no law will exist that takes away from the constitution, in any form, shape or deed.

I was raised to believe it is honorable to die for your country, that the flag will not be desecrated under ANY circumstances, and that this nation exists because of the Living God.

Now that we have kicked God out of our lives, our nation has fallen to a very dark place.

So, my gut reaction is to be angry at the Government. My gut reaction, my real heartfelt reaction, is to take matters in my own hands. That is my gut reaction. I have this reaction because, in the 1980’s I swore an oath that includes this phrase:

“I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God.” 

That oath keep crashing against the shores of my conscience, and I am overwhelmed with the desire to keep that oath.

There’s just one problem with that…..

THE ETHICS OF HELL

“The thief (Lucifer, Satan) comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I (Jesus) came that they (you and me) may have life and have it abundantly.” Joh 10:10

This part took me a while to see.  Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am very patriotic, that I am very willing to risk my life for my oath, that I have been harboring deep hatred and resentment in both the government for all of its blatant display of corruption, and a nation that tolerates it.

But I took my anger to God.

And I prayed.

And prayed.

All this time, God listened to me rant and rave. My anger had been kindled, I wanted to pour out MY wrath on these people.

This is when God reminded me of the ethics of hell.

The enemy of God doesn’t care where fear, anger, confusion, distrust, and treachery comes from, AS LONG AS IT IS THERE. I might feel perfectly righteous being angry, but my anger tempts me to run into sin, and not wait on the Lord. No other patriot would blame me for my feelings, either.

This scripture came to my mind: “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” Pro 25:28

Anyone of us can justify our patriotism. We can even look down our noses at anyone who doesn’t feel the same hatred and indignation of our corrupted government.

God showed me that my anger is misdirected and I was sinning in my heart by the things I imagined should be done to fix our government.

The ethics of hell means that you will be tempted to sin, and you will be able to justify it in ways that hardly anyone else could condemn.

My willingness to lose self control opened a chink in my armor. My anger was not God’s anger. My desires for action were not Gods desires for me. And no matter how well I could justify my attitude, all I did was open a door that allowed the enemy to breach the walls of my heart. And thoughts of evil piled on top of thoughts of evil, until all I became was an animal waiting to be unleashed to his prey.

Satan does not care how much you read the bible, pray, sing in the choir, as long as you are willing to be angry and sin. As long as you give harbor to fear and confusion, as long as you take your eyes off Christ, and look at the waves you are walking on.

Satan is the author of confusion. Satan speaks death in to everything he touches. Satan divides. Satan destroys. And he is especially happy when he can distract Christians away from God. Satan knows that if we ever stop being willing to sin, if we ever approach God and confirm God’s will on our lives, and if we ever remember that our first call is Love, then Satan loses this skirmish.

MY RESPONSE

“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” Isa 1:18

“Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good”. – Rom 12:17 – 21

After praying, and God pointing out that my fleshly response will not please Him, I asked, “Then what should I do?”

God laid it on my heart that my anger does not serve the kingdom. That taking matters in my own hands is not the will of God. God reminded me of my calling, and the fundamentals of all of our calling. Those of us who seek the Lord with all our hearts, who know that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God, and have accepted that free gift of salvation, know deep down that God’s ways are not our ways.

It is the ethics of Hell that demands you take matters in to your own hands. It is the Ethics of Heaven that reminds us:

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Eph 6:12

In God’s army, our battles always begins on our knees before Him. We are to listen to Him, and obey whatever he leads us to do, no matter how contrary it may be to our human reasoning. The mightiest weapons we have in God’s army is prayer and praise.

God reminded me of the battle in II Chronicles 20 (A good read), where the battle was not won with swords, but with praise. This is where we become the most effective in the service of God’s army. Praise and prayer will bring the changes we need in our nation. Unrighteous anger just adds to the overwhelming noise that exists on this planet. But prayer and praise are inhabited by the Living God.

Knowing this, then, here is what I did.

I prayed for the Salvation of Obama. I prayed to God, and the more I prayed, the more it made sense to love my enemy. I prayed for the House and the Senate, as well as the Judiciary. I prayed that the Spirit of God descend on them, and everyone in Washington D.C. that they will be convicted of their sin and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. That the powers that be have the courage to face the consequences of their actions, and to confess to the Lord, who will be faithful to forgive them.

I prayed this prayer, and it was one of the hardest things to do to say that I genuinely love Obama and care about his eternal soul.

It is not my place to attack anyone in the government. Not even in my prayers. As a warrior of God’s army, my battle begins with me getting out of the way of the will of God, and praying for my enemies in a way that is pleasing to God.

It is the will of God that no man should perish.

But for the most part, I needed help from the Holy Spirit to teach me how to pray for people that I so sincerely despise. It is written:

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” Rom 8:26

and

“For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside.” 1Co 5:12-13a

Do I want my sense of vengeance, or do I want revival in the land? I want revival.

Revival will begin when I pray that God forgive my attitude, and when I ask God to fill me with HIS desire for our nation. If we pray for the tyrants who rule over us, we will see a revival in our nation. But this revival must first begin when we, as warriors to God, start the battle on our knees.

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Faith, Uncategorized

THE CONTINUING ADVENTURES OF PRINCESS CALLIE


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For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. Jer 29:11-13 ESV

I heard the plaintive cries of my cat Callie.   Once again, she was standing in total immobility at the opened back door. She clearly wanted to go outside, but last time she made the attempt, a leaf fell off a tree, causing her to have massive heart failure.  The fright was just too much for her.  I, of course, applied CPR.

If you have read my earlier blogs on Callie, you know she has a certain…quality of personality ranging somewhere between stark raving fear, and unbridled panic.

I went to the door, that I had previously opened so she could go out, and waited for her to screw up the courage to do so.   She looked up at me and meowed again. I knew she wouldn’t make a move unless I went out first.

I did.

She followed.

She called on me, and my presence gave her the courage to do what I wanted her to do.

Just like God has been doing for me.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.  Psa 23:4  ESV

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Faith

The Return to God, Part II: God Will Then Let You Know He Is Aware of Your Situation


Part II: God will then let you know he is aware of your situation.

(All Bible quotes used herein are from the ESV, by means of the excellent software: e-Sword. )

I think the thing that slowed my return to God was me…my thoughts, my fears, the dread of being judged as irredeemable.

I was in the way of my own redemption. I had strayed pretty far. I didn’t know how to return to where I was. I didn’t know the way back. I could recall the day of my Salvation. But it seemed a lifetime ago, and I had done SO many things, much of it on purpose, to anger the Living God. I figured I had become irredeemable. Incurable. Incapable of being acceptable to God. Chances are you might feel that way too.

I had completely forgotten what Jesus said about any who are saved.

John 6:37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

John 10:28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

Do you remember the day you were saved? Maybe it was a long time ago, and you have not lived the “victorious life”.  Maybe the burden of separation from God seems like it is too much for you.

But take it from me, one who recently returned, Jesus meant it when He said: I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. And: whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

I had forgotten this. I can remember the day of my salvation. But I had forgotten the above. When I recalled these verses, and finally realized what these verses mean, I realized that A: When Jesus said, ” and no one will snatch them out of my hand. ” He also meant that I myself cannot snatch ME out of His hand.  Jesus said repeatedly throughout His ministry that we can curse and blaspheme God and Jesus, and do all manner of wickedness, and be forgiven, as long as we have not blasphemed the Holy Spirit.  I knew I was saved. My doubts of being able to be forgiven was standing in the way of my redemption to God from my sins.

This Psalm describes how I was feeling:

Psalm 42:1- 2: As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

I missed God. I missed serving Christ. I knew I was lost, and thirsty for the sweet presence of God in my life. I had to get out of my way. and that is when the changes started to happen.

First, I prayed:

Psalm 5:1-2: Give ear to my words, O LORD; consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray.

AND

From Psalm 51: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.

This is what I discovered:

Psalm 145:8 – 9: The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

So I unloaded everything on God:

Psalm 55:22 – Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

And, Psalm 57:2 – I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.

I have to confess. I mean I was prepared to hear Him tell me to go to hell. And I felt I deserved it. But God let me know he has been aware of what I had been up to all along, that he had never taken His eyes off me. And He didn’t do it in a way that was accusative. He did it in a way that let me know I can stop it now, and be forgiven. He knew anyway.

Psalm 44:20-21 If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart.

And:

Psalm 138:8 The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.

Psalm 145:8 The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Psalm 145:9 The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

Because you were saved, and because of the Blood of Christ you can rest assured:

1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

You will suddenly know: Psalm 40:1- 3 I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD.

God knows you are in a plight. He always knew. He quietly intervened on your behalf, in ways you will discover after your return to Him. He led you to the point where you understood how far you strayed. No one who belongs to Him is irredeemable.

You discover: Lamentations 3:21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Understand this, when you began to feel the weight of your guilt for leaving God, it was God making you aware he knows what plight you are in. It was God drawing you back to Him. It was the Holy Spirit convicting you of your need to return. He was letting you know that He knows. That you were the only thing standing in your way.

God gives you the strength and courage to confess, to return, to repent. You have earned this right because you were and are saved by the blood of Christ Jesus. Jesus has made it possible for you to go before God and do business with Him:

Hebrews 10:19-21 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Christ prayed for you. That you will never be snatched out of His hand. He came after you because of His love for you. The fact that you began to miss God, and desired to return to Him is a sure sign that the Spirit of God was at work in your heart. HE KNEW your plight and came after you.

Matthew 18:12-13 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.

You are home now. God went out of his way to find you, and heaven itself rejoiced over your return to Him.

THIS is where things get really interesting.

Stay tuned for Part III: God has made you exactly the way you are, so that you can do exactly what He intends for you to do.

If you would like prayer, please write me at: sammysnardfarkle@gmail.com

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Faith

The Return to God, Part I : When you turn to God, God will turn to you.


[NOTE TO READERS: Please accept my apologies for taking so long on this one. It took several rewrites before it made any sense.]

“From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.” Malachi 3:17 – ESV

“If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.” Jeremiah 18:8 – ESV

Let’s see…Hold on a sec….(Sounds of me frantically digging through my notes.) OK, here they are. You should see my desk. It looks like the International Paper Corporation exploded all over it. Alright, let’s see. “…yet I refused to repent.” Yep, that was the point, wasn’t it?

Frankly, I don’t even know where to start on this one. If you KNOW you need to repent, then this is probably not where we need to start out…I mean, well…you KNOW, right? You might as well be about it, and wait patiently for me to write The Return To God, Part II : God Will Then Let You Know He Is Aware Of Your Plight.

When you turn to God:

How do you know that you need to repent and return to God? I wish I could say that an angel will appear, or a hand will write on the wall, or the spirit of Christmas past will haunt you, but that’s not what usually happens. It DOES happen that way on occasion. Look at the Apostle Paul. Here is how you know you need to repent.

You start to realize there is something terribly out of place. You become miserable. Your conscience bothers you more and more. The fact that you even have a conscience means God still has His hands on you. You can remember what it was like when you were saved, and learning the Bible, and can tell there is no way your present life is anything close to that. You have stopped reading the Bible, but every time you go near it, you feel like you really ought to open it. You wake up one day and realize that everything you have done since turning your back on God has been nearly a complete waste of time (We will discover later that that is not necessarily true, but for now, that is how it feels). You slowly wake up and feel the weight of your sin. You wake up and feel that that sin is going to crush you. If this is you, then you are going through what I and countless other backsliders have gone through.

I woke up slowly, and in that waking I discovered I have never been more miserable in my entire life. I was doing work I hated, I was living a life I hated, I was miserable. “Somehow” it occurred to me that, if I really belong to God, where is the evidence of the walk? Where is my Bible? Where are my prayers? Could it be because there might be something amiss between God and me? “Nah…um…well…maybe I should take a look.” And that’s what I did. I stepped out of my own skin, looked at my life, noticed my life was really messed up, and that I had God riding all in the back of the bus.

It really hit me hard when I heard Carrie Underwood’s hit song, “Jesus Take The Wheel“. I thought my heart was going to tear a hole right through my chest. The thing about God is, He loves you beyond measure. He is waiting to bless you in ways you have never imagined. But, unlike modern parenting, He is not going to coddle us, and give us a trophy just because we exist. God has His own economy, and if you want to do business with Him, you need to know that you cannot have it YOUR way, and please God. He has something else in store for you.

Here’s the big deal about turning to God. It doesn’t matter if all you did was sneak that extra cookie when Mom told you to leave the cookies alone, and you lied to her about it. It doesn’t matter if you just murdered your wife, or husband, or robbed a bank, or raped someone, or are an alcoholic, or a prostitute, or a Satanist. Sin is Sin. Period. If you are a Christian, and have turned your back on God in ANY way, THAT is sin. If you are a Christian and sin, you make a mockery of the death Jesus paid on the cross.

BREAKING NEWS: There is no sin that cannot be forgiven except to blaspheme the Holy Spirit of God.

For the past several years, one prayer that has become my daily prayer is Psalm 51:

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.

Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Psalm 51 – ESV

Did you feel it in your heart? Is that how it feels when you look over your shoulder because you miss God? Do you miss the JOY of His salvation? I know I sure did. And more. What’s more, in the beginning of the Spirit convicting me, I still dug in. But God never gave up on me.

Because I was so damned stubborn, it took God being persistent for 20 years to break me. I really hope you don’t wait that long. Life becomes a living hell if you wait that long. And you will know in your heart that, if you wait any longer, God will give you over to your own will. In spades.

So, give it a try.   Why?

God will turn to you.

In the Old Testament, when you see that phrase of God turning to you, the word picture the Hebrew paints is of a Daddy reaching his arms out, anxiously waiting to hold you again. Jesus called God the Father, Abba…it means “daddy”.

If you are a Christian, you have the right and privilege to call the Living God “Daddy”. He loves you so much it hurts good. He is already waiting right where you are. He is standing right behind you with his arms stretched out waiting to hold you again. He loves you. You are the prodigal son returning to his father after squandering all your talents doing things that served your appetites.

Did you know that the Bible describes this reunion with God actually dancing with you? That the Angels themselves throw a huge party? I can just see Jesus throwing a high five to his dad.

But that alone is not the total reason you repent. That is just what happens if you chose to repent. What happens when you repent is, God cleans you up Himself. He will lift your burden. He will pour his forgiveness all over you. Your heart will be clean again.

Let me ask you something. Do you have to bathe before you take a bath? Nope. That would be silly. You don’t have to clean up before you turn to God because, frankly, that is impossible. Because of the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ, you are and will be clean again when you confess with all your heart, and repent (Means to turn back, FOR GOOD).

You know, just like I knew, that you miss God. Maybe you don’t remember how you got where you are. Maybe you don’t think you can figure out how to get back home. Maybe you don’t think you can be forgiven. You would be as wrong as I was when I thought all those things.

God was there all the time. When I was running from him, all I was doing was crossing his palm. You see, the Bible tells of God’s promise that nothing, no power, no thing at all can remove you from His hand if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. So, you can come home, because you are already there. He already knows what happened in your life because he saw it all. You cannot shock God. Believe me, I tried.

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

Give it a try. You really have nothing to lose.

Let Jesus Take The Wheel.

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Here is an outline of my next few posts:

Part II: God will then let you know he is aware of your situation.

Part III: God has made you exactly the way you are, so that you can do exactly what He intends for you to do.

Part IV: God will then tell you of His plans for you.

Part V: God will send you to do a task. He will empower you to do that task.

That’s it so far, but there will be more in this series.

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Faith

The Prayer


There is a prayer that I prayed over the last several years.  I prayed this particular prayer because I was returning from my rebellion against God.  I fell from his grace about 20 years ago, and it has taken me that long to get to the point where I have been willing to pray and read the Word.  I admit that I did not write the prayer (below), but I prayed it almost every day for a year.  I have recently begun this prayer cycle again.

I have a very strong feeling that someone out there is going through a real challenge, a real struggle.  Try this prayer below.  Just do it.  It doesn’t matter if you feel like it or not, just commit to do this for 40 days.  Whoever you are, I pray with you in this struggle.  A lot of Christians have no idea what darkness lay waiting to capture a soul.  It is very difficult to see this happen, and even more difficult if you are the captive.  Pray this prayer, and watch your life change.  Pray this prayer on behalf of the one you see struggling.  God knows where you are.  Let him see you obey and let him hear your voice.

THE PRAYER

I pray this prayer in the power of the Holy Spirit, and in the name of Jesus Christ.

In the name of Jesus Christ I bind, rebuke, and bring to no effect:  All division, discord, disunity, strife, anger, wrath, murder, criticism  condemnation, pride, envy jealousy, gossip, slander, evil speaking, complaining, lying, false teaching, false gifts, false manifestations, lying signs and wonders, poverty, fear of lack, fear spirits, retaliatory spirits, deceiving spirits, religious spirits, occult spirits, witchcraft spirits, and spirits of Antichrist.

I bind all curses that have been spoke against me,  I bless those who curse me, and pray blessings on those who despitefully use me.  I bind all spoken judgement made against me, and judgments I have made against others.  I bind the power of negative words from others, and I bind and render useless all prayers not inspired by the Holy Spirit; whether psychic, soul force, witchcraft or counterfeit tongues that have been prayed against me.

I am God’s child.  I resist the devil, in the name of Jesus.  No weapon formed against me shall prosper.  I put on the whole armor of God.  In the name of Jesus, and because Jesus has granted me this power, I take authority over this day.  Let this day be prosperous for me, and let me walk in your love, Lord.

The Holy Spirit leads and guides me today.  I discern between the righteous and the wicked.  I take authority over Satan and all his demons and those people who are influenced by them.  I declare Satan is under my feet and shall remain there all day.

I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.  I am God’s property because I have been bought with the shed blood of Jesus Christ.  Satan, you are bound from my family, my mind, my body, my home, and my finances.  I confess that I am healed and whole because of the blood of the Lamb, Christ Jesus.  I flourish; I am long lived, stable, durable, incorruptible, fruitful, virtuous, and full of peace, patience and love.  Whatsoever I set my hands to do shall prosper, for God supplies all my needs.  By the authority Christ Jesus has placed in me, I have all authority over Satan, all demons, and beasts of the field.

God, I pray for the ministry you have for me.  Anoint me, God, for all you call me to do for you.  I call forth divine appointment, open doors of opportunity, God ordained encounters, and ministry positions.

By the name of Christ Jesus, I claim a hedge of protection around myself, my spouse, my child(ren) throughout this day and night.  I ask you, God, in the name of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior,  to dispatch angels to surround me, all the members of my family, to put angels throughout our home, around our cars, souls and bodies.  I ask angels to protect my house, and all the land that surrounds it, from any intrusion and to protect me and my family from any harmful demonic mental attacks.

Lord God, I pray this prayer of behalf of my neighbors, my friends, my extended family and my nation.

I ask this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, my Savior and Lord.   – AMEN

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